Because they lacked a key piece of equipment, firefighters from a financially struggling Florida fire protection district were delayed helping a man who suffered a fatal chainsaw injury this past weekend, according to fire officials.
The incident happened Saturday in Immokalee when Esteban Cristobal-Antonio, 36, seriously cut himself while trimming tree branches about 30 feet above the ground, the Naples Daily News reports. While Immokalee Fire Control District crews made it to the scene quickly, Cristobal-Antonio remained in the tree, out of reach of firefighters using a 24-foot extension ladder.
A battalion chief then made a mutual aid call to the North Collier Fire Control and Rescue District, and firefighters from that department arrived around 45 minutes in a ladder apparatus to pull down Cristobal-Antonio. Unfortunately, he had been bleeding extensively and died before he could be treated, according to the Daily News.
"This is such a horrific and tragic event for this family, who just lost their loved one,” Immokalee Fire Chief Michael Choate told the news outlet. “Our firefighters felt helpless, and they are still dealing with this.”
One factor that might be compounding those feelings is that, until a few months earlier, the district had its own ladder apparatus with a platform that reached 95 feet. The vehicle was bought in 2015, but this fall, officials have reconsidered the purchase as they continue to face budget shortfalls and a growing list of disadvantages for the apparatus:
- It was too cumbersome to navigate local streets.
- The station where it was originally planned to be garaged still hasn't been built.
- The department doesn't employ enough firefighters to operate it currently.
- A grant used to retain firefighters was lost.
After voters rejected a fire fee to help ease some of the district's financial troubles in August, officials finally decided to sell the apparatus this past fall for about $500,000 in order to avoid layoffs. It had been purchased for a little less than $900,000, the Daily News reports.
"We told everyone we were going to have to sell it (the ladder truck)," Choate said. "We had to sell it, or we were laying people off, and we couldn't do that with the number of calls for service we get every day out here."
The chief wouldn't speculate on whether Cristobal-Antonio would have survived his injuries if the district still had its ladder apparatus. But Choate told the news outlet that Immokalee firefighters eventually will have that option again.
"We will get us another ladder truck, we will. It's just going to take time," he said. "At the end of the day, a man lost his life and that we can't forget. That we can't ignore."
