Woman hospitalized after tree falls onto roadway, traps her
A Burbank police officer talks to a driver whose car was struck by a large pine tree that toppled at the intersection of N. Clybourne Ave. and Sarah St. on Monday, Feb. 1, 2016.
Firefighters rescued a woman trapped under a roughly 50-foot pine tree that toppled into a Burbank neighborhood on Monday, officials said.
The woman, who is in her 50s, was crossing the street at Clybourn Avenue near Sarah Street shortly before 11 a.m. when she reportedly heard a crack, and started running, said Burbank Fire Capt. Peter Hendrickson.
The tree, which stood outside a single-family home on the Los Angeles side of Burbank’s border, collapsed onto the roadway in Burbank before the woman could escape, leaving her trapped under branches for half an hour.
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First-responders crawled under the tree to assess the woman, who suffered what appeared to be minor to moderate injuries, Hendrickson said.
Roughly 15 firefighters from Burbank and Los Angeles used airbags to lift the branches, which they later cut, to rescue the woman. She was subsequently rushed to Los Angeles County USC Medical Center.
Clybourn Avenue was closed until forestry officials removed the fallen tree.
“It’ll probably take the rest of the day to clean it up,” Hendrickson said on Monday.
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Alene Tchekmedyian, alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com
Twitter: @atchek
