11.10.2016

Tree trimmer shocked

A man was severely burned yesterday after he came into contact with overhead power lines while trimming trees in Port Salerno, North of West Palm Beach, Florida.

The man, 47, was working form Martin County Parks Department checking trees in New Monrovia Park, for damage from the recent hurricane. He was using a new Niftylift SD170, when he came too close to the wires. His shirt caught fire and he was unable to put it out and it took some time to remove it. Sadly his colleagues working below had no idea how to operate the platform’s emergency descent.

A recording of a call to the emergency services is hard to listen to as his co-workers panic not having a clue on how to bring the platform down. Fortunately the emergency services were able to bring him down while still alive and was airlifted to a hospital in Miami. The machine was undamaged and worked perfectly normally following the incident.

Mark Lynch, deputy director of the Parks and Recreation Department made a statement confirming that the man had been injured while working from a platform and said: ”They were pruning trees, looking for anything that might have come up from the storm that didn’t fall to the ground and make sure the parks are safe. Our hearts go out to him and his family. I hope he’s okay and all of Martin County will be thinking about him.”

“We are going to talk to staff in the morning and reiterate about safety in order to make sure this doesn't happen to anyone else.”