Sweet Home Man Dies While Trimming a Tree

The victim fell from a fir tree, approximately 52 feet off the ground.

Sweet Home, Oregon (Google Maps)

(SWEET HOME, Ore.) - Linn County Sheriff Bruce Riley reports his deputies are investigating the death of a Sweet Home man that fell while trimming a tree.

Today at 10:21 a.m. deputies responded to R & L Excavating on Crescent Hill Road in Sweet Home, after being notified by Sweet Home Fire of a fatal tree-trimming accident.

Deputies learned the resident, 59-year old Raymond Launder, was trimming trees with a friend, 59-year-old Richard Paulino. Paulino told deputies Launder was in a fir tree approximately 52 feet off the ground.

Launder was wearing a safety harness and had detached the harness to move to a different location in the tree. Paulino heard him yell, turned around and found Launder lying on the ground and unresponsive. The Sweet Home Fire Department responded and Launder was pronounced dead at the scene.

Paulino described Launder as an excellent tree trimmer and deputies found no malfunction with Launder's equipment.

Sweet Home Funeral Chapel removed Launder's body from the scene. The investigation is continuing.

Source: Linn County Sheriff