An 8-year-old boy was struck and killed by a tree branch that fell while he was attending a summer camp at King Gillette Ranch in Calabasas on Wednesday afternoon, July 9, authorities said.
Authorities responded just after 2:50 p.m. to the ranch in the Santa Monica Mountains. Camp staffers were giving aid to several people.
The boy was taken to the hospital, where he was declared dead, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said.
Four other people were injured: an 11-year-old girl, who was airlifted to a hospital with a broken leg; a 5-year-old boy who was cut on his head; a 22-year-old man who was bruised on his head and arms; and a 73-year-old man who sustained a concussion.
The group had been getting some shade from beneath the tree when a branch snapped, according to the department. People reported hearing a loud crack before the branch, estimated to be between 25 and 30 feet long, suddenly fell from the oak tree.
“This is a profoundly difficult time for our entire MRCA (Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority) community and the parks community of the Santa Monica Mountains,” the authority said in a statement. “We grieve alongside the family and are keeping them in our thoughts and prayers.”
Jill Ettinger said her 11-year-old daughter, Imogene, had started at Camp Wildcraft as a junior counselor on Monday, and was in the group of campers standing beneath the tree, preparing to be dismissed for the day when the branch fell. The girl sustained a minor foot injury while running away.
Ettinger said that enrolling her daughter in this camp had been an effort to repair her relationship with nature, after Imogene’s father lost his house in the Eaton fire in Altadena.
“We were drawn to the combination of nature and art and that it was outside all day,” Ettinger said. “It was a little bit of healing for her after being the victim of a wildfire in January.”
Imogene witnessed camp staff giving the 8-year-old victim CPR, she said. Ettinger also said her daughter saw one of the camp owners suffering from a head injury.
It is, unfortunately, not the only fatal accident that Imogene has witnessed at a summer camp. Ettinger said that her daughter saw a fellow camper drown at a summer camp in Altadena seven years ago.
According to Ettinger, her daughter said that a few days before the accident, the camp had told them that a branch had fallen from the tree about two weeks prior, before Imogene arrived. However, staff deemed it to be safe, Ettinger said, and campers continued to gather beneath the oak at the end of each camp session. A request for comment was placed with the camp about the report a branch had fallen earlier.
Ettinger said the ordeal has her doubting the safety of Los Angeles County summer camps and rethinking her decision to enroll Imogene in any future summer camps.
She added, “It seems unbelievable that a girl who is not even 12 years old has witnessed two fatalities during a day camp.”
