Tree surgeon in 20ft horror fall

The man, named locally as Dalkeith-based Matt Davies, was rescued by firefighters after the incident at Park Road, Trinity, at around 3pm yesterday.

After falling from the tree on to a wall, a heavy branch he had been attempting to remove fell on him. A team of three tree surgeons had been removing the sycamore from a lane shared by residential properties when the accident happened.

An ambulance spokesman said the 41-year-old was taken to the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, suffering from a broken leg and suspected back injuries.

Firefighters from McDonald Road and Newcraighall fire stations used a bow saw to cut away the tree limb and release him.

One neighbour, who did not want to be named, said: “There was a huge furore. The men had been working on the tree all morning, and one of them had been up in the tree removing the last bit of the trunk. The next thing I knew I looked out and he was there by the wall, he was in a bad way and looked in a lot of pain – he was chatting to the ambulance staff, but he couldn’t move.

“There was lot of debris lying around the bottom of the tree and it was really difficult for the emergency services to get him out of there. It must have taken a good hour.

“He was put on a stretcher and the firefighters had to lift him over a wall. He had a lucky escape – if any part of the wood had hit him then he would have been killed.”

The sycamore was one of a number of trees which were being removed amid concerns they were eroding a bank by a publicly-owned path.

Another resident said: “When I looked out, the street was packed with emergency services. The other two guys who were with him looked pretty traumatised after what happened. Either he fell from the tree, or he has been hit by a bit of wood and it’s knocked him out of the tree. The team have been there for a few days now and they were very diligent, I saw them rope up before they started.”

A fire spokesman praised the quick 999 response.

He said: “We were called to assist police after a tree surgeon fell from a tree in the Park Road area.”

The accident comes just a week after a window fitter fell 70ft from a top-floor flat and was killed. Mark Paterson, 32, was sitting on the window ledge in Inverleith Row when he lost his balance and fell.