HARRIS COUNTY, Texas — A tree trimmer was electrocuted Monday while working in northwest Harris County.
This happened in the backyard of a home around noon in the 5700 block of Pinewilde Drive near Champions Forest Drive.
The Harris County Fire Marshal's Office said the 51-year-old tree trimmer, who worked for a small, private company, was wearing a harness and used an aluminum hand to cut branches from the tree.
Firefighters said the man was able to cut the limb above a power line but as the pole was coming down, it made contact with the main power line. The man was electrocuted and died.
"Our neighborhood is Greenwood Forest. It was developed as a very heavily treed neighborhood. And you definitely need to have trimming done. This might be an eye-opener for folks to be sure that whoever they hire, is truly knowledgeable, with regard to safety," said neighbor Rebeca Rex. "It seems like a freak accident. But at the same time, looking at how close the tree is to the power, it’s concerning that a person was up there like that.
The homeowners said they were the first ones to notice the man in the tree. They said he appeared to be unresponsive so they alerted another tree trimmer who was also working on the tree and called 911.
The second worker was not injured.
It took nearly two hours for first responders to recover the deceased man's body from the tree because they had to wait on Centerpoint Energy to cut off power to the line, officials said.
The area near the incident was blocked for several hours.
Harris County Precinct 4 and HCFMO are investigating.