Death by Palm Tree

[velutina]

I've never heard of this happening before, but i'm not from a climate with palms. Is this sort of thing common? This guy was a professional tree trimmer. What can I do to prevent this from happening to me?

"LAS VEGAS -- A tree trimmer has died while on the job in a tree in the air about 35 feet up, officials said.

Firefighters responded to the scene at 1634 E. Twain Ave. and found the man unresponsive at 6:34 p.m. Thursday.

Witnesses said the man was trimming a palm tree, when some of the heavy leaves came down and landed on him, suffocating him.

Firefighters said they did not have a ladder long enough to reach the body and had to put a basket under it to reach him. Officials said the man appears to have died from being crushed by a limb."

http://www.fox5vegas.com/news/19338312/detail.html

[DoomsDave]

That is wierd. The story the says the trimmer died because he was "crushed by a limb".

That said, people do sometimes meet their maker in trimming palms, especially Washies, because that accumulated skirt can weigh a lot, and guys have suffocated from that. They get engulfed if the skirt falls on them, and they can't breathe and die.

There's too much we don't know here.

[MattyB]

My brother-in-law, who is a La Mesa fire fighter, told me that they respond to this call several times each year. The super tall Washintonias need to be climbed to trim because it's rare to find a bucket that can go 75+ feet. If a skirt has never been cut off, they start at the bottom and work their way up trimming all the dead fronds as they go. At some point, due to the lower fronds being removed, an entire section of the upper fronds slide down as a unit and pin the tree trimmer to the trunk under several hundred pounds of weight. This suffocates the tree trimmer before help can arrive. Crazy! I don't know why they still do that when it's well documented that it's dangerous.

[MattyB]

See how you could be trimming up and the entire top section has already 'self cleaned' but remains as an encircled skirt because all of the lower fronds were holding it up? Crazy dangerous.

[John in Andalucia]

Washie "skirts" should be decided upon as a feature. In rural settings I think they look great (like the one outside our neighbour's house), but in a public area, everything should be be maintained from day one, IMO. It's not as if skirts of that size accumulate overnight, so why try and deal with it like a regular trimming job? As Matt says, it's crazy to send someone up a tree after so much dead weight has accumulated.

[osideterry]

So if you trim one, do it top down? The guys doing it should know this vital bit of info.

Glad I don't have any washies. My queen now has 16+ ft or so of trunk, so I can still trim it with a pole lopper. Not looking forward using the pole lopper from an extension ladder.

Edited May 1, 2009 by osideterry

[Cycadcenter]

same thing happened in Phoenix a couple of weeks ago:

Man crushed to death under palm tree fronds

by Ofelia Madrid - Apr. 11, 2009 07:09 PM

The Arizona Republic

A man was killed in central Phoenix Saturday after the fronds from the palm tree he was trimming crushed him, fire officials said.

A call of three men struck in a tree came in around 1 p.m., said Capt. Shelly Jamison, a Phoenix Fire Department spokeswoman.

When crews arrived at the home near 26th Street and Earll Drive they could see two men in the backyard tree about 40 to 50 feet up. They were yelling in Spanish that their friend was cut in the leg and pinned in the tree.

Firefighters were able to coax the two men down and found the third man pinned under the tree skirt, which was estimated to weigh 2,000 pounds, Jamison said.

"The man was no longer talking or moving," Jamison said.

It took fire crews about 20 minutes to cut row after row of palm leaves to free the man and lower him to the ground. The man has not yet been identified, Jamison said.

The first two men said they'd been in the tree about 20 minutes trying to rescue their friend.

The victim was cut in the leg after the chainsaw he was holding dropped to the ground, but it wasn't the chainsaw that killed him, Jamison said. The weight of the palm fronds crushed him.

Although Jamison said this type of death isn't common, she said it happens frequently enough that the department's technical rescue team carries equipment to respond to this type of emergency.

[DoomsDave]

I wouldn't let Washie skirts accumulate, because they are so flammable. One match will touch off a blazing inferno.

They need to be trimmed all along. Too bad guys die in the process when it could be prevented.

[Moose]

If large fronds concern you guys, stick with the Chamaedorea genus and be safe.

I would rather get taken out by the plants I love than some uninsured, unlicensed immigrant on the road.

The percentages are in favor of that occuring before getting killed by a palm.

By the way, tree surgeons is listed as one of the top dangerous professions.

[buffy]

Trim the skirts? One match can solve this problem real quick.

[MattyB]

So if you trim one, do it top down? The guys doing it should know this vital bit of info.

Terry, you can't trim a 90 foot Washy from the top down because there's no boom lift that goes that high. You've gotta climb it from the bottom up.

[southlatropical]

I think I'll remove my washie while it's still small. They are just too much trouble.

[sonoranfans]

So if you trim one, do it top down? The guys doing it should know this vital bit of info.

Glad I don't have any washies. My queen now has 16+ ft or so of trunk, so I can still trim it with a pole lopper. Not looking forward using the pole lopper from an extension ladder.

Dont go to the extension ladder, go to a 12' step+ pole saw, that way you wont be under the frond as it falls. I also have no washies because of this reason. A few years ago I read about a guy who had his throat slit by the petiole of a falling filifera frond. I also have no CIDP as I am afraid of those monster thorns on a falling frond. I love both filiferas and CIDP, but I dont ever want to trim them.

[yachtingone]

Just so you all know! JLG man lifts go up to 120' . It's a boom lift with a basket on the end of it. They are quite exspensive to rent. Spend money or die what a choice???

[PalmGuyWC]

The eaisest way to kill or maim yourself working on a palm is to fall off a tall ladder, something most of us do, but shouldn't. It's also rediculious to have a helper who insists on holding the bottom of the ladder steady. They have no leverage and do absolutely no good, but it makes them feel better.

I have 6 very tall Washingtonias and I love them. They are 60 feet tall, and I let mother nature clean the old fronds off. They are messy but worth it.

Dick

[OverGrown]

Just another reason why I hate those unpruned washies!

[Kris]

very useful topic ! But even iam trying to grow a washy here in india...

"History Repeats itself for men never learn !" And this would include even me..

Love,

Kris.

[Jose Maria]

Here in the south of Costa Rica we have thousands of hectares of african oilpalm.

They are trimmed an a continuous basis. Every week a crew goes tru the plantation to harvest the ripe palm bunches and trim the fronds at the same time.

Nobody uses a ladder, even the tallest palms are trimmed by using telescoping aluminum tubing with a special steel, crescent shaped knife at the end.

The knives are made from a very hard steel, made in Malaysia, and imported here.( Malaysia is the world number one oilpalm producer).

The only danger is from the spines that protrude from the bunches and sometimes injure a careless harvester.......but never a fall or a suffocation......no ladders or climbing gear around!

All the supplies can be found in Malaysia, and could very well be useful in trimming palms in situations like those mentioned.

http://www.alibaba.com/product-free/115216...ife_Sickle.html

Just one of the sites where this stuff can be found.

[The Germinator]

Check this out Dave man trapped in Long Beach Palm.

[Kris]

Here are some palm tree trimming video links !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQGD1Lo38wE...feature=related

And here the casuality is only the palm,no human beings are hurt...

Kris.

[cagary]

How far do they telescope out?

Here in the south of Costa Rica we have thousands of hectares of african oilpalm.

They are trimmed an a continuous basis. Every week a crew goes tru the plantation to harvest the ripe palm bunches and trim the fronds at the same time.

Nobody uses a ladder, even the tallest palms are trimmed by using telescoping aluminum tubing with a special steel, crescent shaped knife at the end.

The knives are made from a very hard steel, made in Malaysia, and imported here.( Malaysia is the world number one oilpalm producer).

The only danger is from the spines that protrude from the bunches and sometimes injure a careless harvester.......but never a fall or a suffocation......no ladders or climbing gear around!

All the supplies can be found in Malaysia, and could very well be useful in trimming palms in situations like those mentioned.

http://www.alibaba.com/product-free/115216...ife_Sickle.html

Just one of the sites where this stuff can be found.