FALLBROOK — On Wednesday, June 4, North County Fire Protection District, Pala Fire and Bishop’s Tree Service conducted a training exercise for emergency workers to gain more expertise in rescuing tree trimmers in incidents involving palm trees.

On-site while the training took place was Rich Magargal, a 45-year veteran certified tree worker who has decades of experience trimming palm trees.

Magargal, the author of an article entitled "Beware the Hidden Dangers of Palms," says there is a distinct danger that a tree trimmer can be suffocated beneath a skirt of dead fronds when trimming the two palm species commonly found in California, the Mexican fan palm and the California fan palm. It is not unusual in some areas to have palms that are 100 years old.

Within the past year, a tree worker in Fallbrook with 15 years of experience suffocated beneath a 10- to 12-foot skirt of dead fronds while trimming a palm. It was reported that emergency workers spent 40 minutes trying to rescue the worker.

"Suffocation accidents are the result of fronds Advertisement

[ Berry-Bell and Hall Mortuary ] sliding down, or ‘sloughing,’ onto the climber," Magargal said. "There is absolutely nothing he or she can do to remove them because their entire body is forced down and against the palm trunk with hundreds of pounds of pressure. The force of the fronds is primarily on the head of the climber, forcing the chin into the chest. This is how suffocation occurs."

Magargal quoted John Ball, a professor at South Dakota State University: "Tree workers have a fatality rate three to four times that of police officers and firefighters. Death related to the care of palms is generally the result of electrocution, falls or suffocation."

In his article, Magargal said the safest way to trim palms trees is with the use of aerial equipment, rather than the trimmer climbing the tree, and for residents to employ the service of a professional tree service that uses trained, experienced personnel.

Encinitas-based Bishop’s Tree Service Inc., who took a proactive role in this exercise, has served San Diego County since 1978. Their motto is "Safety first!"