Man rescued from 40-foot palm tree in Los Angeles

Photo by Christopher Ott on Unsplash

On the morning of Wednesday, March 31, firefighters arrived at the scene of a person trapped in a palm tree.

We have many questions and we bet you do too. Let’s dig in!

This individual was actually an arborist who was trimming the palm tree. He trimmed palm fronds until a few too many trims.

Unfortunately, they got stuck in the tree, forty feet above the ground.

You can imagine the terror and adrenaline.

The way arborists trim palm trees is they use a climbing belt and cut away the dry palm fronds.

Sometimes, palm fronds move or become dislodged, thereby trapping the worker underneath them.

The rescue, thanks to LAFD or the Los Angeles Fire Department, involved aerial ladders to support the arborist while firefighters cut away the palm fronds.

The arborist was luckily conscious and breathing. While rare, it is not unheard-of for arborists to die while trimming palm trees.

Folks on Citizen share their condolences, shocked reactions, and hopes that this individual is okay.

Folks who are making jokes and believe this person climbed the tree for fun or something are just being silly.

Believe it or not, over 150 species of palm trees grow in southern California alone.

Us up here in the Bay Area wish there were that many here! We should say, us up here in the Bay Area who used to live in Orange County wish there were more palm trees here.

Stuck or not stuck, we hope the Christmas-lit palm trees look perfect this year. Extra perfect to celebrate summer and the pandemic’s end.