Tree branch weighing ‘thousands of pounds’ falls on kids at Massachusetts summer camp in horror accident

A large branch from a tree fell and struck four children who were attending a summer camp in Massachusetts yesterday.

Officers and firefighters responded to a report of the incident yesterday morning at Norwood Recreation Department camp. Four young campers were sitting on a bench underneath the tree when a branch weighing ‘thousands of pounds’ snapped off and fell on them.

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Three of the children were rushed to nearby hospitals. One girl had her foot pinned under the tree and firefighters used tools designed to extract people from car accidents to free her. The other campers did not suffer serious injuries.

Norwood Police Chief, Christopher Padden, reported afterwards, “everybody looks like they are going to be OK.”

He explained that many of the children attending the summer camp had gone on a field trip that day, so the camp was not as full as it typically would be.

“The branch was very heavy. It was a very big branch,” he said. “We’re very fortunate that there weren’t more kids because had that branch landed on somebody it would have been a lot worse.”

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When questioned about how heavy he thought the branch was, Padden said, “thousands of pounds,” adding that the camp would never have been able to move it without the help of firefighters.

Following the near tragic event, the city of Norwood will assess the tree and other trees in the area to see if they need to be removed.

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