A 26-year-old firefighter was killed when a dead tree struck and killed him while he was preparing a patch of land for a prescribed burn in Calaveras Big Trees State Park, east of Sacramento, California, officials said.
Darin Banks of Red Bluff was assigned to a hand crew preparing for the prescribed burn in the park's South Grove, where there are hundreds of ancient sequoias, when he was killed on May 6, according to Jess Wills, president of Firestorm Wildland Fire Suppression Inc.
Banks was clearing dead trees when the top of a tree broke off and fell, striking him in the head, back and legs, said a spokesperson for California's Division of Occupational Safety and Health. Banks could not be resuscitated and was pronounced dead at the scene.
