Tree branch weighing ‘thousands of pounds’ falls on kids at Norwood playground, police chief says

NORWOOD, Mass. — A large tree branch weighing “thousands of pounds” fell and struck four children who were attending summer camp at a playground in Norwood on Thursday morning, an official said.

Officers and firefighters responding to a report of a downed tree at a Norwood Recreation Department camp on Hawthorne Street before 10 a.m. learned four campers sitting on a bench under the tree had been hit by a branch that snapped off in the wind, according to Norwood Police Chief Christopher Padden.

“Four children were hit by parts of the branch. Three of them were transported to the hospital,” Padden told reporters. “No injuries were serious. Everybody looks like they are going to be OK.”

Padden noted that one girl had her foot pinned under the tree and firefighters had to use tools designed to extract people from car wrecks to lift the branch off of her. The others suffered injuries like minor scratches.

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Branch falls on kids at Norwood playground

A nurse who lives in the neighborhood rushed over to the scene to help the kids, ultimately comforting the girl who had her foot pinned until EMTs and firefighters arrived.

“I could hear children screaming. Adrenaline started pumping and I just ran over there,” Suzanne Van Hoesen said. “I asked her, ‘Can you wiggle your toes?’ She could. I said, ‘Can you feel me touching your ankle?’ She could. The color of her foot looked good. She asked me if she was going to walk again. I said, ‘It’s a really good sign you can move your toes...The fire department is going to come and take you to the hospital.”

Van Hoesen said she recently trimmed branches on her property to prevent an incident like this one from happening and that the trees at the playground are “very old” and “very big.”

Many of the kids were off on a field trip when the branch fell, so the summer camp wasn’t as full as it usually is, according to Padden.

“The branch was very heavy. It was a very big branch. We’re very fortunate that there weren’t more kids because had that branch landed on somebody it would have been a lot worse,” Padden said.

When asked exactly how heavy the branch was, Padden responded, “Thousands of pounds,” and said that those at the camp would’ve never been able to move it without the help of the fire department.

Padden says the town will now assess the tree in question to determine if it needs to be taken down, as well as other trees in the area.

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