The family of a 49-year-old man who died while trimming a tree in Hacienda Heights was in mourning Thursday.
Firefighters were called just before 4 p.m. Thursday to the 15400 block of Garo Street, where the victim, identified as Simon Lemus, was unresponsive 40 to 50 feet up a palm tree, according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
Crews used an aerial ladder to reach Lemus, who was lowered to the ground about 5:30 p.m. and pronounced dead at the scene, a fire department dispatch supervisor said.
"I'm broken because he was a great dad, he meant everything to me, he was a great example," his daughter Karen Lemus, a young adult, told NBC4.
"I'm really sad because I lost him."
The sheriff's department reported the man was a commercial tree trimmer, although he was working for a friend Thursday and may have been struck by a large frond.
