City Heights man dies after tree limb falls on him on Christmas Eve
A man died after a tree splintered in half and fell on him in City Heights on Wednesday.
The victim was hit by the limb, which appears to be about 30 feet long, when it fell in the 3800 block of Marlborough Avenue in City Heights at about 11 a.m.
San Diego Fire-Rescue told NBC 7 that the victim, who was in his 60s or 70s and lived in the house nearby, went into cardiac arrest after the large branch fell on him.
Zenaida Rodriguez, who identified herself as the victim’s daughter-in-law, said Roberto Ruiz and her family had planned to celebrate the holiday on Wednesday night at the house, and that Ruiz had gone outside to move his car when he was hit by the branch.
“We’ve been complaining to the city about this tree … they’ve been living here more than five years, and we’ve been complaining about the tree,” the woman told NBC 7. “Nothing was ever done, so I feel like San Diego failed.”
San Diego Storm Watch
A city crew on the scene confirmed to NBC 7 that the city does, in fact, own the tree.
Rodriguez became emotional talking about her loss.
“This is a father, a grandpa — my son’s 2 and a half, my daughter’s 15,” Rodriguez said tearfully. “How do you go home on Christmas Eve and tell your kids that their grandpa’s dead?”
It’s not yet known if the storm, which brought high winds with it when it arrived at about the same time, caused the tree to fracture.
Winds out of the south could gust between 20-35 mph and as high as 45 mph. The coast and inland valleys will be under a wind advisory until 10 p.m.
An Airport Weather Warning is in effect for San Diego International Airport for wind gusts of 30 knots or greater from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m.
Similar incidents were reported around the county at about the same time: a large Chipotle/Starbucks sign came down on two cars in National City on the Mile of Cars Way just off Interstate 5.
San Diego Gas & Electric was reporting Wednesday around noon on its outage map that thousands of San Diegans had lost power — from Poway in the north to San Ysidro in the south, from Del Mar in the west to Spring Valley in the east — but almost all of the incidents reported said the cause of the outages were unknown.
Around 1:15 p.m., the Coronado Police Department began urging motorists to avoid the area of Park Place and Star Park Place due to electrical wires being down.
With reporting by NBC 7’s Shelby Bremer — Ed.
