Falling limb kills 14-year-old planting trees at park, Oregon officials say. ‘So unfair’

A 14-year-old boy planting trees at an Oregon park as part of a volunteer project died Nov. 6 after a tree limb fell on him, The Oregonian reported.

Another fallen limb also killed one man and injured another at a Portland homeless camp, police reported on Twitter.

The deadly incidents followed a series of rainstorms with gusty winds, KATU reported.

The incident at the homeless camp near Northeast Sandy Boulevard and Northeast 118th Avenue took place about 10:45 a.m., KGW reported.

An arborist called to inspect the tree from which the limb fell called it “severely deteriorated,” police wrote on Twitter. They did not provide the condition of the injured man.

About 30 minutes later, a fallen limb at Thousand Acres Park in Troutdale, just outside Portland, hit and killed the 14-year-old boy, KGW reported.

The boy had been planting trees at the park with Friends of Trees, The Oregonian reported. The organization’s executive director said in an email that it was “devastated” by his death.

“He was just so sweet, just a smiling, wonderful child who believed in volunteerism,” the boy’s aunt, Kathleen Arthur, told the publication. “It’s just so tragic that this happened, it’s just so unfair.”

Arborist Dash Schenck with The Davey Tree Expert Company told KGW that lack of water and extreme heat over the summer “really stressed the trees out.”

This story was originally published November 7, 2021 at 1:40 PM with the headline "Falling limb kills 14-year-old planting trees at park, Oregon officials say. ‘So unfair’."