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Authorities Reflect on Falling Pasadena Tree

Many officials that responded to the incident from all over the city last Tuesday were parents themselves.

A little over a week after a tree fell on eight children sitting outside of Kidspace Children's Museum in Pasadena, some of the first authorities to respond reflected on the tragic incident.

The 75-foot tree injured eight children, two of which were critically injured and were sent to Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center. Those two children have since been released and are back at home.

"They went home, so that's a good one," said David Francis with Pasadena Fire. "Definitely lost a first night of sleep over it, but now it's back to business as usual."

Many officials that responded to the incident, from all over the city last Tuesday, were parents themselves.

"The information was coming in that there were possibly children involved," Captain Kenneth Fitch with the Pasadena Fire Department.

Francis said he was assigned to the rescue ambulance. When he arrived, he was one of the first people on the scene. He said he saw policemen "diving" into the tree, and added that there were, "four or five officers in there, just all you can see were feet coming up in the air."

"Our assignment on the ladder truck was to grab as many chain saws as we could, and start taking away the branches so we could figure out if any more kids trapped underneath the tree," Haddad said.

Fitch noted that staff from Kidspace Children's Museum, where the children were attending camp, worked alongside first responders and gave authorities the number of how many children were unaccounted for.

"The kids were really quiet, it's not like you see in Hollywood where everybody was hysterical," Fitch said. "It was a very, very calm scene."

Now, more than a week after the crash, the tree is being examined by an independent arborist in an attempt to determine why the tree fell with "no warning," as described by one witness Klea Scott.

Pasadena city officials said they hope to have more information about the condition of the tree next week, when the arborist concludes his investigation. 

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