A distressing incident occurred last night in Wilmington, Massachusetts, when a large tree toppled over, injuring a woman and a one-year-old child. The Wilmington Fire Department received an urgent call around 6 p.m. about the accident at a residence on 7 Gandalf Way, as reported by NBC Boston.
First responders arrived shortly after the incident – running into the scene by 6:12 p.m., where they discovered the child had already freed themself from beneath the tree's weight. The mother, however, still lay pinned and required extraction by fire and police personnel, Wilmington Fire Chief William F. Cavanaugh detailed in comments given to Boston.com. Both were subsequently taken to local trauma centers to treat their injuries, the nature and extent of which were not immediately disclosed to the public.
Witnesses at the scene, including a neighbor who spoke on the condition of anonymity, recounted how first responders carefully freed the trapped woman and prepared both the child and mother for ambulance transport. According to WCVB, local police also confirmed that the injured parties were transported to a trauma center.
The cause of the tree collapse remains under investigation. While storms and downpours marked the region's weather earlier in that day, officials have not yet confirmed if these conditions contributed directly to the incident. Trapped until first responders arrived, the woman lay beneath the tree, though her child managed an escape prior to their arrival.
