Friday, February 05, 2016

Firefighters rescued man from top of palm tree

A man was rescued from the top of a palm tree in Encinitas, California, on Wednesday morning in what firefighters called a "rare incident." "Tree rescues are rare incidents for emergency responders," Battalion Chief Robert Ford said.



"The quick and safe actions by firefighters resulted in a successful rescue." Just after 11am, emergency responders from the Encinitas, Solana Beach and Carlsbad fire departments found the man trapped in the palm tree, approximately 20 feet off the ground.

"Responders found the victim pinned underneath a large amount of dead palm fronds unable to move," Ford said. Firefighters utilised an aerial ladder truck to reach the victim, securing him to the tree with a rope and safety belt as they removed the fronds.



The man, whom Ford said remained awake and alert during the rescue, was taken by paramedics to Scripps La Jolla Trauma Center for evaluation and treatment of minor injuries. It is not known why the man was in the palm tree.

4 comments:

Barbwire said...

He was probably trying to trim off the dead fronds, which the firefighters ended up doing for him.

arbroath said...

Yes, you're absolutely right, Barbwire.

The day after I posted this another news report confirmed that he was indeed attempting to trim the dead fronds.

Barbwire said...

We have a lot of palm trees around here.

arbroath said...

Heh!

They're not exactly common where I live.

A neighbour across the road used to have a huge yukka in their front garden that resembled a palm tree ... until my former next-door neighbour had a 'funny turn' while in his car and careered out of his drive at great speed and knocked it down.

It did prevent him from smashing into the house, mind.