Closest Call?

[tree md]

The Guido story got me to thinking about close calls that I have had and some of the mistakes I've seen others make. I work pretty safe but sometimes I think it's a miracle that I lived long enough in my early days to learn to stay alive.

What was your closest call?

Mine was when I raked the top of a limb through a phase three powerline. I was taking a limb out of a maple that I felt the tip might come into contact with the line. I made a face cut then made a compression cut on the backside of the limb to direct it to fall in a direction that would give maximum clearance of the line. I was pretty sure the tip would just barely rake the line but I was high enough that I had plenty of room to cut the limb where it would jump off the stub and be free falling before it touched the line. When I made my back cut my saw bogged and stalled and the limb hinged over instead of popping off. I jerked the saw out of the limb and stood back on my spurs where the only thing I had contacting the tree was my spikes, rope lanyard and TIP. I could feel stinging in my feet where the electricity was coursing through the spikes (and me) but luckily I didn't ground. Also lucky my groundie didn't ground either. When it was over, I said a silent prayer and finished the take down. I was a rookie climber with just enough experience to get myself in trouble and wasn't really old enough or experienced enough to make the best judgment calls at the time. I have never taken a chance like that since.

 

[Tree Pig]

thanks man thats a good one to file back in the memory banks under Things to think about when cutting near voltage

But you accidentally called the thread Closet Call... Is there something else you want to tell us Freudian slip maybe?

 

[tree md]

LOL, oops!!!

Hey, I may have some skeletons in my closet but I'm definitely no closet case!

 

[ozzy42]

I remember roping out a big slash pine,climbing on 1/2in arborplex and using some 5/8 coiled rope as a limbline,zipped a heavy one down, not noticing the Limb/L was across my lifeline.Sawed it about 1/2 way in two.

Learned 2 important lessons that day.
1.keep lifeline clear at all times.
2.tri coiled rope can cut just like a hack saw,that rope never went in a tree again.

 

[tree md]

"Closest Call?"

"Closest Call?"

Ahh, you got me!!!

 

[oldirty]

didnt feel like walking back up to the truck to get a short piece of rope to secure the broken but still attached top that i was about to takedown.

i was tied into another tree directly over the broken tree. i went down the broken top limbing it up when it get to the last ten feet.


i set it free.

because i was standing on it as she went i went with it.

and as we both swung the stem i just limbed up broke free and fell/slid right down my climbing line.


BANG

she absolutely ragdolls me and flips me upside down and sends me swinging like a tether ball.

once i figured out i was still alive i zipped out the tree and let out a war cry and tossed my helmet as far as i could. i was pumped to still be alive!


lazy will get you almost as often as complacency.

i no longer screw around with broken tops. tie them to the stem and secure it!

 

[pdqdl]

I'm not sure if I got quite that close

I was working out of my old, uncertified, beater bucket truck; taking down a bushy, topped-many-times elm tree. Right next to a house-to-house power line. It was a single wire on top of the 25' pole, no real problem. Right?

I knew I wasn't supposed to be within 10' of the wire, but I figured it was a ground wire, 'cause it was all by itself. Electricity travels in paired wires or 3-phase, right?

During the job, I cut of a 1" switch of green branch about 6' long. While tossing it away from the tree, I accidentally swept the wire with the tip and got a mild tingle.

The electricity made it through the branch, down my hands, through my neoprene soled boots, out the new bucket liner into the fiberglass bucket, attached to the 20' fiberglass upper boom, mounted to the truck on rubber tires.

OOOHHH !!! THAT wasn't supposed to happen!

Of course it turns out that the wire was a single 7Kv wire feeding the transformer for the houses in the area, and it was probably a real good thing that my bucket truck was at least a little bit electricity resistant.

Otherwise I wouldn't be typing this, would I?
(needless to say, I got much more attentive to how the wires and transformers work after that)

 

[LTREES]

Years ago I cut a limb out of a tulip over a single hot line. My 1st instinct was to piece it out and bomb it straight down. Got talked into roping the whole thing. Tied it high and notched it on a 90 deg to the line. Told groundie to hold the line until it clears the wire. He let it slip (couldn't hold it?) what ever, the rope slipped and the hinge snapped. It fell on the the wire and ended up in my chest. A huge mess, I cut out about 8' of the wood and they couldn't move it off the wire. I went to cut the other side of the lowering rope and ran out of fuel. My life line was too short to reach the ground to get the saw refueled. If I had fuel in the saw i would have cut my rope, I got hit 4-5 times when my back hit the lead behind me . Squealed like a pig. Still don't know where that sound came from. Groudie finally pulled it off of the line with a rope. The burnt piece of wood sits in my garage to always remember the day God spared my life. I will serve Him always. Go with your 1st instinct.

LT...

 

[tree md]

Years ago I cut a limb out of a tulip over a single hot line. My 1st instinct was to piece it out and bomb it straight down. Got talked into roping the whole thing. Tied it high and notched it on a 90 deg to the line. Told groundie to hold the line until it clears the wire. He let it slip (couldn't hold it?) what ever, the rope slipped and the hinge snapped. It fell on the the wire and ended up in my chest. A huge mess, I cut out about 8' of the wood and they couldn't move it off the wire. I went to cut the other side of the lowering rope and ran out of fuel. My life line was too short to reach the ground to get the saw refueled. If I had fuel in the saw i would have cut my rope, I got hit 4-5 times when my back hit the lead behind me . Squealed like a pig. Still don't know where that sound came from. Groudie finally pulled it off of the line with a rope. The burnt piece of wood sits in my garage to always remember the day God spared my life. I will serve Him always. Go with your 1st instinct.

LT...

True miracle your alive.

 

[Raymond]

You guys are gonna give me nightmares.

 

[Mapleman]

Man, I'm tingling just reading this stuff.

When I was a rookie I held a piece thinking I could cut and pitch it over the those really big lines, 48kvs, i dunno. Anyway, couldn't cut the piece fast enuf to break it and throw it, so piece hinged into the lines. Tingled to my left shoulder. Glad it didn't reach my heart.

Years later I was back cutting a leader and looked up. OMG, I was tied into it. Fastest throwing slack into a climbing line in recorded history.

I'm sure there's other stuff I'm mentally blocking out.

 

[Toddppm]

Funny this thread is here, I woke up this morning thinking about how when I started out on my own way back I didn't think anything about the wires. Had to take down a tree for a realtor I know where I actually had to squeeze between the trunk and main supply lines rubbing on my back as I spiked up, it's insulated right? Stupid :censored:

 

[pdqdl]

LTREES: That ain't a close call, that was a near death experience. Your little escapade is worthy of a whole new category of bad experiences.

 

[ddhlakebound]

My closest call was only a couple months ago. Still fresh in the memory, and mostly healed.

I was doing a removal of a busted up walnut, it had previously been bent over 90 degrees about 12' up, and regrown from there, with several limbs now facing upward and taking on the role as competing central leaders.

It was should have been an easy removal, all 6 cuts within about 4 feet of each other, no roping needed. I hopped up in, tied in and started what was going to be a five minute removal. Four faces and backs took off all but the biggest new leader, and one under and over dropped the now horizontal original top. Only the one I was tied to was left, and a couple feet of horizontal stem I was standing on.

It had previously split and healed, leaving the cambium in a figure 8 shape. I knew it was going to be a bit tricky. Put in a perfect shallow notch, then a relief cut to sever all the holding wood on my side, then swung around right into the back cut without checking my relief cut.

The top comes over perfectly, until the notch closed. I'd missed a one inch strip of holding wood on the inside edge of the oddly shaped stem. When the notch closed, the hinge didn't break. It just rolled to my side of the trunk as the tips were nearing the ground. That big springy top loaded up, and then the hinge broke.

It hit me like a thirty-five foot baseball bat, on my left forearm parallel to my arm. Drove my elbow to my backbone, through my saddle, and knocked me back into my climbing line and flipline. It wasn't done yet, cause when it knocked me back, my legs were still below it, it the way.

It came to rest on the shank of my gaff, trapping my right leg between it and the horizontal stem, with me hanging backwards parallel to the ground holding a still running 346.

My partner is at the base of the tree in about 3/4 of a second hollering throw that damn saw. I pass it down to him, and start trying to free my leg, with my arm and abdomen already throbbing. No joy, I'm stuck. He was about to come up the tree to cut me free when I realize that he just needs to undercut the tips to allow the butt to raise up enough to free me.

In a few seconds I'm back on the ground, mostly intact and not really injured, just hurting pretty good, and feeling like a total dumbass.

I could have spiked up another 3 feet and cut round wood, instead of trying to take off the top at the old split wound, but overconfidence and complacency made me the baseball that day. I worked the next day, but was moving slow and climbing gingerly.

 

[treesquirrel]

During a wateroak removal on a windy day I was about to cut the last remaining lead. It was a bit annoying but tolerable. I rigged the top and set my block and anchor. Made the cut and while my goundie lowered the top I started hearing a popping sound below me. I immediately came off the flipline and zipped down my climbing rope to the ground.

I was certain the stub was breaking somewhere below me and I was right. We dropped the stub and there was a weak point in the middle where it shattered and broke in half.

I think the combination of wind, my weight, the impact of the last lead dropping onto the anchor almost did me in that day.

 

[silk]

Widow maker hell

Working one weekend the entire crew was sent out for a weekend volunteer event to take down over 100 very very large cottonwood in a local park
in the Frasier Valley.

It was the perfect job. Hammering down 100' plus huge cottonwood with a single cut on the end of a 66 is something we almost never get to do.

So we are taking down this one monster and as it drops into the forest it plows into 3 other huge cottonwood. The canopy smacks the tops of the other 3 which bend way back, and slingshot right back at us. So here are the 2 of us directly under a storm of at least a few dozen very large limbs that had busted free from the 3 cottonwood.

My buddy dives to the ground and goes into fetal position in an instant. I hit the deck beside a large cottonwood round and close my eyes and wait for it.

The first one to hit me was to the head and upper back. Broke my helmet and left a ring in my ears for most the day, as well a nice bruise down my back.

After the storm cleared we get up, everyone is running towards us, yelling to see if we are still alive. My buddy manged to not get hit but all around him was arm sized limbs stuck at least a foot into the ground.

We both were lucky as any one of the limbs would have turned us into humans on a stick with little trouble.

 

[ozzy42]

A round to everybody for us living to tell these stories,instead of our survivors

 

[John464]

had a piece swing back into me and break two bones in my hand. I didn't have enough room/time to get behind the stem. Groundy froze. Instead of turning my back on the piece and potentialy have it take my head I braced myself and took the beating. Believe it or not I wrapped my hand and finished the job. Didnt find out it was broke in two spots till the next day.

 

[teamtree]

dropping the last 25' of a white oak from about 60' in a bucket truck. It was hot and I had some raw groundies working for me and ready to be done for the day. I set my block...notch the top....tie my bull rope on and get ready to make my back cut. I know I am not in the best position with the bucket or the truck itself but wanted to get done so I told them to let it run to ease the shock....well they snubbed it off and the stem shot back right at me and slammed the bucket and pushed me out of the way and then it hit me again on the way back to center.....I was scared ####less and could not beleive the bucket did not give or a cylinder didn't break or a pin....

There was a lady watching me and she thought I was dead and I tried to play if off but it was one of the worst feelings I have had doing tree work.

But it was my fault at the end of the day. I suppose I have had many close calls and I try to learn from all of them....I try not to do the same bad thing more than once....

 

[LTREES]

True miracle your alive.

It is by Gods good grace, my shirt was soaked with sweat but some how I did not ground all the way? Cause juice was running through me. Had a wild fire works show on the line too.

LT...

PS. Live and learn!!!!
That was @ 12 years ago.