Crews rescue injured worker trapped nearly 50 feet up in tree
By Veronica Haynes, Rhondella Richardson
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EAST BRIDGEWATER, Massachusetts (WCVB) — Crews rescued an injured tree worker who was hit by a limb and was trapped atop a tree nearly 50 feet up in East Bridgewater, Massachusetts, on Wednesday.
The incident happened at about 11 a.m. in a wooded area behind a home on Northridge Drive.
The tree worker, who was secured in a safety harness, climbed the tree using shoe spikes and was using a chainsaw when a falling piece of the tree kicked back and broke his arm, East Bridgewater officials said.
After training for these tech rescues for six years, rescuer Ben Ferreira had his first actual rescue underway shortly after 11 a.m.
“(The worker’s) left arm did have an injury to his wrist region. I had to be delicate working around that injury. In the process of doing the rigging, to remove him from the tree,” he said.
Interim East Bridgewater Fire Chief Kevin Nord estimated that the tree worker was stuck about 47 feet off the ground.
“His helmet was knocked off. He was lucid. There was a communication barrier, but we had translators here,” Nord said.
From Sky5, the worker could be seen at the top of a tree that had its limbs removed. The man was securely harnessed to the tree, had a chainsaw and appeared to be clutching his arm.
After about an hour and a half, a rescuer reached the injured man via ladder, readjusted his harnesses and began slowly lowering the man to the ground.
The man, a 47-year-old Brockton resident, was loaded onto a stretcher and treated at the scene. He was then taken from the scene in an ambulance and flown to Tufts Medical Center in Boston.
The incident is under investigation, and officials from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration were at the scene.
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