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‘It hurt me looking at him': Calif. tree trimmer impaled by fence after fall

A neighbor held the worker up as best as he could until Lakeside firefighters arrived

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Lakeside Fire Protection District/Facebook

By Don Sweeney
The Charlotte Observer

LAKESIDE, Calif. — A tree trimmer required rescue after a fall from a ladder left him impaled on a metal fence, California firefighters reported.

Firefighters with the Lakeside Fire Protection District responded to the incident Tuesday, Aug. 8, in Lakeside after getting a call for help, the agency said in a news release on Facebook.

“It hurt me looking at him,” neighbor Roger Buck told KSBW after the accident.

Buck said he ran to the man’s rescue after hearing his cries.

“He was a good two or three feet off the ground and he was pretty much hanging there,” Buck told the station. “I held him up as long as I could.”

Firefighters cut away part of the fence before taking the injured man to a hospital, the release said.

“It is imperative to leave any impaled objects in place and have a surgical team remove them as removing the object in the field can cause further injury,” firefighters said.

The fence impaled the 50-year-old tree trimmer’s left arm but did not go through, firefighters told KGTV. He was reported in stable condition.

Lakeside is about 25 miles northeast of San Diego.

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