Tragedy Averted As Group Of 1st Responders Rescue Man Caught In A Tree In Shirley

MASTIC, NY — A man was rescued from a tree in Shirley by a group of about 20 first responders on Saturday morning, the Mastic Fire Department said.

The department was called to the scene at the Glen Drive home at around 11:12 a.m., after the man's foot had become lodged between two tree branches, when he was doing yard work about 15 feet off the ground, Asst. Fire Chief Rudy Sunderman Jr. said.

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The man was cutting down tree branches with a chainsaw, and he cut one above his head, but then it dropped onto another tree branch, which wedged his foot between the two branches, he added.

The fire department, emergency medical personnel from the Mastic Volunteer Ambulance Company, and Suffolk police's Emergency Services Unit rescued him worked alongside each other, putting up ladders and bridging the gap between the trees, to raise the tree branch up with a spreader tool.

He was struck for at least 20 minutes, and then it took another 30 to free him.

The man, whose foot had become numb, was then loaded onto the stretcher and into a waiting ambulance.

Sunderman says that a tragedy was averted in that the man could have been seriously hurt if he had fallen from the tree before his rescuers arrived.

Moving forward, he advised residents use caution when cutting trees.

"Make sure that you pay attention while you're doing it," he said. "That's the most important thing. Understand that it's dangerous going up that high, without being secured or anything like that."