A man was rescued by firefighters after being trapped inside his car when a large pine tree fell on top of it in Beverly Hills Tuesday night.
Authorities received a call regarding a person trapped in a car at Lexington Road and Oxford Way. The strong winds had uprooted the large tree that had crushed the vehicle. It landed just inches away from the driver’s seat.
Firefighters arrived at the scene and used the Jaws of Life to cut through the roof and peel back the shattered windshield of the black Mercedes to pull the driver out.
The man, who was still conscious, was transported to a nearby hospital in an unknown condition.
The old pine tree spanned the width of the road.
“Anytime you have an accident like this and can walk away from it, so to speak, very lucky driver,” said Dave Grate, Beverly Hills fire battalion chief.
Gusty winds have also been felt in North Hollywood, where another tree toppled over and took down power lines.
In the Fairfax district, residents on Fourth Street heard a loud noise. It ended up being a small tree that had landed on two cars.
Curt Isakson is a 35 year veteran of the fire service. Curt is currently a Battalion Chief for Escambia County Fire Rescue. Previously worked 9 years with the Pensacola Fire Department where he was assigned as the Company Officer on Rescue 31. Curt’s fire service experiences started at a young age as a Junior firefighter with the Midway Fire Protection District and rose through the ranks to Captain. He has worked in volunteer, career, and combination departments.
Curt has held all ranks up to Battalion Chief and been assigned to operations, training, inspections, and was Chief of Special Operations for 7 years. Curt owns and operates County Fire Tactics that covers a very diverse range of fire service topics, as well as Firefighter Rescues, a site that documents rescues made by firefighters around the country.
He has annual contracts with numerous departments to provide standardized monthly training for these departments that respond daily together under an automatic aid agreement. Curt teaches nationally to include; FDIC, Firehouse Expo, Firehouse World, Orlando Fire Conference, Atlanta Fire Conference, Bowling Green State University, and owns/operates the annual HROC, COBC, WOTF, CFT ODP on Pensacola Beach. He is a Florida Certified Fire Officer, Instructor, Inspector, Arson, and FLUSAR.
