2wheels
ArboristSite Member
A long time freind is gone, please take the time to work safe
BY JASON KUIPER
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
A 44-year-old Omaha man died Tuesday morning after being electrocuted while clearing trees from a lot at 911 S. 31st St.
Tom Cappellano was loading tree branches onto the bed of a Heartland Tree Service truck about 11 a.m., Omaha police said. He was operating the hydraulic lift at the controls on the side of the truck when the end of the boom came in contact with an active power line.
Cappellano was unconscious on the ground beside the truck when medics arrived and was declared dead at the Nebraska Medical Center.
Jeff Hanson, a spokesman for Omaha Public Power District, said the power line was an 8,000-volt distribution line.
The other employees working at the site were not injured.
A neighbor of Cappellano's remembers him as a friendly man who kept an eye out around the neighborhood.
"He always waved when he saw us or would offer us a beer," Heather Blazicevich said.
Blazicevich said Cappellano would always have time to talk. Another neighbor said Cappellano often had people over for barbecues at his house and enjoyed outdoor activities like camping.
When a large tree limb fell down in Blazicevich's backyard, Cappellano offered to saw it up and haul it away at a discount price.
"He hauled it away for us for next to nothing because he was our neighbor," she said. "He was very easy to get along with."
Cappellano was often seen out playing with his two grade school-age children, the neighbor said.
Staff writer Abe Winter contributed to this report.
BY JASON KUIPER
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
A 44-year-old Omaha man died Tuesday morning after being electrocuted while clearing trees from a lot at 911 S. 31st St.
Tom Cappellano was loading tree branches onto the bed of a Heartland Tree Service truck about 11 a.m., Omaha police said. He was operating the hydraulic lift at the controls on the side of the truck when the end of the boom came in contact with an active power line.
Cappellano was unconscious on the ground beside the truck when medics arrived and was declared dead at the Nebraska Medical Center.
Jeff Hanson, a spokesman for Omaha Public Power District, said the power line was an 8,000-volt distribution line.
The other employees working at the site were not injured.
A neighbor of Cappellano's remembers him as a friendly man who kept an eye out around the neighborhood.
"He always waved when he saw us or would offer us a beer," Heather Blazicevich said.
Blazicevich said Cappellano would always have time to talk. Another neighbor said Cappellano often had people over for barbecues at his house and enjoyed outdoor activities like camping.
When a large tree limb fell down in Blazicevich's backyard, Cappellano offered to saw it up and haul it away at a discount price.
"He hauled it away for us for next to nothing because he was our neighbor," she said. "He was very easy to get along with."
Cappellano was often seen out playing with his two grade school-age children, the neighbor said.
Staff writer Abe Winter contributed to this report.
