Man killed in tree-trimming accident near Sebastopol identified

A 21-year-old Santa Rosa man was identified Wednesday as the victim of a fatal tree-cutting accident Tuesday in the Bloomfield area of Sebastopol.

David Mendoza, an employee of North Bay Tree Care, died after the company owner, who was some 80 feet up a tree, cut off a length at the top that apparently fell on Mendoza, according to the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office.

North Bay Tree owner Ben Cervantes had trimmed the limbs off a large pine tree outside a rural Thorn Road residence and was topping the tree when the deadly incident occurred shortly after 2:30 p.m., Sonoma County sheriff’s officials said.

Authorities said the falling log was about 8 inches in diameter.

A fire official said Tuesday that Cervantes told him he had called down to Mendoza and told him to stay out of the way because he was cutting the tree top. He apparently did not realize Mendoza was still there when he made the actual cut, Gold Ridge Battalion Chief Adam Schipper said.

Authorities said Cervantes descended to the ground and began cutting the log to get it off Mendoza.

Arriving firefighters found him lifeless amid piles of jumbled branches near the base of the tree, Schipper said. He said there were no external signs of injury.

Paramedics declared Mendoza dead at the scene.

Mendoza apparently has family in Santa Rosa and is a longtime resident. Other details about his life and background were not immediately available.

On Wednesday, the standing trunk of the tree was surrounded by severed limbs in the overgrown yard off Thorn Road. The nearby house was apparently unoccupied.

The property feels remote, though Schipper said firefighters got to the scene in less than 10 minutes.

Schipper said the property owner had been at the scene the day before and was very upset.

He said Cervantes was distraught and said he had known Mendoza for “a very long time.”

Cervantes, reached by phone Wednesday, declined to answer questions about the incident or about Mendoza, saying he needed time and had been in shock at the scene.

“He knew what he was doing. I knew what I was doing,” he said. “It’s kind of one of those things where something went wrong. Exactly how it went wrong, I don’t know.”

Sheriff’s officials said Mendoza was wearing an orange safety vest, but it was not clear if he had on a hard hat or not, though it likely would not have helped, authorities said.

A Cal-OSHA spokeswoman confirmed the agency was investigating the incident and had a representative on the scene Tuesday shortly after Mendoza’s death.

She said she could not say anything more about the incident.

“It’s really an unfortunate thing,” Schipper said. “I really feel bad, whatever the sequence of events.”

Staff Writer Randi Rossmann contributed to this report. You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MaryCallahanB.