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PASADENA -- An autopsy was scheduled Sunday for a tree trimmer killed when a section of palm branches came loose and pinned him while tethered to a tree about 50 feet above the ground, authorities said.
Artemo Hernandez, 40, of Sun Valley, was trimming fronds off the top of a palm tree at a private residence in the 500 block of South Oak Knoll Avenue around 11:00 a.m. Saturday.
Hernandez, still tethered to the tree, slipped about 20 feet down the trunk and was hanging unconscious and entangled in palm fronds when rescue workers arrived, according to fire spokeswoman Lisa Derderian.
A gardener who was working nearby said Hernandez shouted as he fell, but then went silent. After hearing Hernandez's screams, a witness called 9-11.
The gardener said it looked as if the tree's crown fell on the man as he was trimming the fronds.
It took firefighters using a ladder truck about 2 hours to finally lower the man to the ground, Derderian said.
When they reached the man hanging from the tree, firefighters determined that he had died and covered him with a sheet while they worked to fee him from the chain that was tethering his body to the tree.
Authorities have yet to determine an official cause of death.
Artemo Hernandez, 40, of Sun Valley, was trimming fronds off the top of a palm tree at a private residence in the 500 block of South Oak Knoll Avenue around 11:00 a.m. Saturday.
Hernandez, still tethered to the tree, slipped about 20 feet down the trunk and was hanging unconscious and entangled in palm fronds when rescue workers arrived, according to fire spokeswoman Lisa Derderian.
A gardener who was working nearby said Hernandez shouted as he fell, but then went silent. After hearing Hernandez's screams, a witness called 9-11.
The gardener said it looked as if the tree's crown fell on the man as he was trimming the fronds.
It took firefighters using a ladder truck about 2 hours to finally lower the man to the ground, Derderian said.
When they reached the man hanging from the tree, firefighters determined that he had died and covered him with a sheet while they worked to fee him from the chain that was tethering his body to the tree.
Authorities have yet to determine an official cause of death.
