Residents say dead tree trimmer pulled from palm kept busy

One stands freshly shorn of dried fronds, with a few live shocks reaching toward the sky. The other still has dozens of green palm leaves, with a skirt of sagging, brown fronds hanging below — a reminder of unfinished work.

The task was left undone by tree trimmer Daniel Wynn Smith, 46, of Las Vegas, identified Monday by the Clark County coroner’s office. The coroner’s office hasn’t released the cause and manner of death.

A man who rents the house at 1632 Palmer St., who didn’t want to be identified, said he didn’t know Smith and didn’t know if he worked for himself or a landscaping company. He said his landlord arranged for the trees to be trimmed.

Firefighters from North Las Vegas and Las Vegas were called just before 1:50 p.m. Sunday to the address, where a man had been calling for help about 30 feet up in a palm.

When crews got there, the North Las Vegas fire department said, Smith was hidden in the fronds. They pulled his lifeless body out 15 minutes later, using a bucket on the end of an extended arm.

Smith was pronounced dead about 2:30 p.m. Sunday.

On Monday residents of the 1600 block of Palmer Street, near East Owens Avenue and North Pecos Road, remembered him as loyal and hardworking.

“We knew his face because he was usually around helping on our block,” Lucio Cordero said in Spanish. He lives across the street from the house were Smith had been working.

Smith had been trimming one of the palm trees at that house Saturday, Cordero said. To his knowledge, Smith hadn’t been hurt Saturday.

But something went wrong Sunday. And firefighters had a tough job to do.

“You couldn’t even see him up there in the tree,” Cordero said. “He was beneath so many leaves.”

Fellow neighbor, Jay Akins, said he was perplexed when he saw Smith working Sunday.

“I was just surprised to see a guy up there in the pouring rain,” Akins said. “He was trying to do his job, but picked a bad day to do it.”

It rained a lot Sunday for the Mojave Desert. The Las Vegas Valley got nearly half an inch — .46 inches to be exact, according to the National Weather Service. That broke the previous record for Jan. 11, set back in 1949 with .29 inches.

Another neighbor, Delores Mendibles, said she will miss a worker who was “in demand.”

“It just happened so quick,” Mendibles said. “All we could do was pray.”

The weight of collapsed fronds can suffocate tree trimmers. The California Department of Public Health put out a warning about it in 2014.

One of the chiefs of the Las Vegas Fire Department’s Technical Rescue Team, Scott Province, said Monday those branches can exert 100 pounds of pressure per square foot.

That team went to Palmer Street on Sunday, Province said. To remove someone form a tree, the crew cuts through the fronds and uses a gun with a rope on it pull the person out.

Las Vegas’ 30-member Technical Rescue Team has undergone annual, month-long training sessions for palm tree rescues, Province said.

It wasn’t clear Monday whether Smith was licensed in Clark County for tree trimming. The Nevada Occupational Safety and Health Administration could not be reached for comment.

Smith’s death was the second time in the past month that firefighters have pulled someone from a palm tree in North Las Vegas.

On Dec. 22, less than a quarter of a mile away in the 1700 block of James Street, Carlos Dye, 49, of North Las Vegas, died from suffocation, according to the coroner’s office. His death was ruled accidental.

Reporter Wesley Juhl contributed.

Contact Chris Kudialis at ckudialis@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0283. Find him on Twitter @kudialisrj. Contact Kimberly De La Cruz at kdelacruz@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Find her on Twitter: @KimberlyinLV.