I read the review and I really get tired of hearing there was nothing that could be done. The poor guy may have been killed instantly by impact. His lanyard on his saw may have strangled him. None of those trees in the picture of the house are big. They said they had to bring in a "Special Unit" and work off a "Big" ladder. Doesn't look like more than a standard 40 footer. We seldom had two climbers on one job, but the crew leader usually had basic climbing skills and could get up an 80 foot tree in a few minutes. When I wasn't climbing and running a crew, I had basic aerial rescue training. By the time I took the course the name had been changed to "Aerial Recovery". They didn't want anyone else to touch the tree till it was certain the tree wasn't energized. Another climber could be up there in a few minutes. Could another climber have made a difference, who knows.
Back to the "Nothing could be done" issue. One of our major fire departments talked about putting on an Aerial Rescue Team. It was decided that with all of the training and certifications needed, it would be well over a $100,000 dollar per year job, 20-30 years ago. It was then decided that it would not be fiscally responsible to put a man in every station, for an occurrence that might happen every 5-10 years. To be effective you would need a man on duty in almost every station, but daylight hours only. Ask a bow hunter how long you have to live if you fall out of your stand and swing upside down on your safety rope, not long. If the rope is around your diaphragm you only have minutes. It's a rough call. but, lots of cases that wind up on this forum, the victim was alive for long periods of time. Especially guys with cuts. 50 feet up and he hung there for 2 hours.
God bless the firemen that responded, but if it takes 2 hours to get them on the scene, it's strictly Aerial Recovery, not rescue.
