Escondido Tree Trimmer Dies In Palm Tree Accident

BONITA, CA — Authorities Wednesday released the name of a 39-year-old tree trimmer who was killed when palm fronds collapsed onto him as he was working to remove them from the top of a tall tree in a neighborhood near Chula Vista Golf Course.

Bardomiano Bautista-Perez of Escondido was at the top of the palm tree in the front yard of a home in the 3500 block of Yerba Lane in Bonita when he became trapped and suspended among the cut foliage shortly before 11:30 a.m. Monday, according to the San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office.

When emergency personnel arrived, Bautista-Perez's co-workers were trying to free him from the heavy fronds, which had pinned him to the tree about 50 feet off the ground, said Capt. Josh Sanders of the Chula Vista Fire Department.

When firefighters got to Bautista-Perez via a large ladder, they discovered that he had died. His cause of death remains under investigation.

It took emergency-services crews about a half-hour to free the victim's body from the fronds, Sanders said.