A couple of weeks ago on a really hot day I got home and found a big branch from my neighour's (AKA Dad) tree had fallen into our yard, barely missing our house. The branch it had fallen from had a big chunk out of it. Dad's been trying to get the tree cut down for years but the council wouldn't budge because they didn't think it was dangerous.
Due to the heat the tree was under stress and Gum Trees tend to shed their branches when stressed. Dad was unable to work on it due the same heat, but when the cool change came through a few days later it brought a wind storm with it. It broke the other branch which got caught up in another branch, making both a hazard.
Dad got up the ladder to try to move the branch but was unable to so opted to cut the second branch. He was sliding the branch out, with his head turned to the side watching it's progress. He turned his head to the front just as both branches fell on to his face, holding him in scissor grip. He tried lifting them off with one hand while gripping onto another branch with the other but was unable, my husband had to climb the ladder behind him to lift them off. Dad ended up with a split lip, minor bruising and a sore jaw, it could have been much worse. Especially if he had been doing the work on his own, which he often does - I think we may have to ban unsupervised ladder climbing, the same way he banned my Grandmother from moving furniture alone after she put her arm through a glass cabinent.
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