‘Really relieving’: Man saved from camper after tree crushes it due to wind
SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP, Ohio (WJW) — At about 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Kara Reeves was folding clothes inside her Fenn Street home as the tremendous winds were whipping through her trees outdoors.
“I heard just a really loud bang and I kind of looked around and didn’t really see anything,” Reeves told Fox 8.
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Almost immediately she got a phone call from her stepfather, Jay Nelson, who was resting in his camper in their backyard.
“He sounded pretty far away so I was like, ‘Hey,’ and he was like, ‘Help I’m trapped in the camper. I’m trapped in my bed, a tree fell on me,'” Reeves said.
She hurried to find a massive tree that had crushed the camper. She could see Nelson’s only free hand reaching out through a gap in the debris.
“There was one tiny crack that he kept trying to stick his hand out because his right hand was free and that’s how he ended up calling me,” Reeves said.
“My jaw hit the floor. I just, I was so shocked that he was talking to me and not finding a worse outcome,” she added.
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The debris and massive tree were across his chest and stomach.
“I just kept saying, ‘Just breathe.” He was like ‘I’ve got a trailer laying on me, I can’t reallly breathe,'” she said.
Reeves said firefighters and police officers arrived quickly after getting the 9-1-1 call.
The police department said Officer Steve Svidron’s used a chainsaw to cut through the tree while firefighters were using inflatable devices to try and create a gap in the wrekage big enough to get Nelson out.
“My first impression is we have a unique situation that we are not dealing with that we don’t deal with every day,” Fire Department Lieutenant Bruce George said. “That was a mess, for him for sure.”
“Fortunately the position that he was is what saved his life. If he was in a different position in that trailer, things wouldnt have worked out as well for him,” Police Chief Jack Simone said.
Ultimately, they were able to free Nelson from the wreckage. He was taken to a local hospital where he was treated for minor cuts and bruises before he was released.
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Reeves told Fox 8 News that after falling on hard times, her step dad scraped up enough money to buy his camper and was proud to have something he worked hard to get. But she said it was all he really owned.
“He’s such a good humble man. He really, truly, and something like this happened, he didn’t deserve it but the fact that he is fine it’s, really relieving,” Reeves said.
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