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A 100-foot tree fell on a house in Arnold and killed 8-year-old Haley Verzani (inset) in her sleep. (Photo: LA Times | Inset: Daily Mail)

Residents of Arnold, a small mountain community near the Bear Valley ski resort, were devastated by the death of an 8-year-old girl who was crushed in her sleep Sunday morning when a 100-foot tree crashed onto her house.

•   A 100-foot-tall tree was uprooted during a storm and crashed onto a neighboring home.

•  The tree fell into a sleeping child’s bedroom and crushed her in her bed.

•   The 8-year-old girl did not survive. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

•   The tree was growing on someone else’s property.

Ebbetts Pass Fire officials told the Stockton Record they were dispatched to the scene on the 2700 block of Moran Road at 6:27 a.m.

A tree, which was about 100 feet tall and almost three feet in diameter, fell across a creek from a neighboring lot after a night of heavy snow.

Battalion Chief Ron Getter said the tree was completely uprooted from the creek and crashed down through the roof of the single-story house, through a loft area, and into the child’s bedroom. The tree landed on 8-year-old Haley Verzani’s upper body and pinned her to her bed.

Getter said firefighters had to travel through a blanket of new snow on unplowed streets to get to the house. It took 20 minutes to get there, he said.

Ebbetts Pass Fire District Chief David Baugher said rescue crews had to call in heavy equipment to lift the tree off the house, according to an Associated Press report. It took at least an hour to move the tree, Baugher said.

“We used the jaws of life and other rescue equipment to move the tree and get to the child,” Baugher told Fox 40 News.

Haley did not survive. The second-grader at Hazel Fischer Elementary School was pronounced dead at the scene.

The child’s mother, Lindsey Jacoby, was at home with her boyfriend when the tree fell, but neither of them suffered injuries. They were being counseled by chaplains, Getter said.

Verzani’s family told Fox 40 they noticed the towering pine tree was leaning and looked like it was about to fall, but they didn’t know what to do about it because it was growing on someone else’s property.

“We just didn’t know it was going to fall on her like that,” said Kim Christopher, one of the victim’s cousins.

Tragedy at California Ski Resorts: 3 Dead, 2 Caught in Avalanche

The storm that rolled into the region Saturday dumped 6 to 8 feet of snow on some Sierra Nevada ski areas, leading to at least three deaths and several injuries.

Read more: Tragedy at California Ski Resorts: 3 Dead, 2 Caught in Avalanche 

Arnold Accident Lawyers

The trial attorneys at Blackman Legal Group, a California-based law firm founded by renowned trial attorney Clifford Blackman, have successfully represented property-related accident victims and their families for 35 years. The nationwide toll-free number to call for a free consultation is 1-866-692-8126.

A 7-year-old boy died two days after falling from a Sugar Bowl ski lift. (Photo: KCRA)

A 7-year-old boy died Tuesday after he fell from a ski lift and sustained a critical head injury Sunday at the Sugar Bowl ski resort in Northern California.

•   A 7-year-old avid skier fell 60 feet from a chair lift at a Sierra ski resort. He landed in a rocky area that was only partly covered by snow.

•   The boy suffered a critical head injury and was airlifted to a hospital in Reno, where he had surgery.

•   Sadly, he did not survive his injuries. He died on Sunday.

The accident occurred shortly before 11 a.m. Sunday, according to a report in the Auburn Journal.

Resort spokesman John Monson said the boy, who lived in Davis, was a member of the Sugar Bowl ski team. He was riding with two other team members on the Mount Lincoln Express chair lift when he fell 60 feet onto a hard-packed surface that was not fully covered in snow, Monson said.

The boy, who was wearing a helmet when he fell, suffered a severe head injury, according to the Reno Gazette-Journal. Rescue patrol transported the boy down the hill on a sled. One witness said he saw the boy receiving CPR before he was airlifted via helicopter to Renown Medical Center in Reno.

At the hospital, doctors performed surgery to relieve the pressure in the little boy’s skull, but he died two days later.

Davis resident Jim Powell was at the resort chaperoning a high school ski team field trip on Sunday. He told the Davis Enterprise that he rode the same chairlift just moments later the victim fell.

“It did not look good” Powell said. “An adult would not have survived that fall.” Exposed rock stuck out from under the partial snow cover, he said.

But snow conditions are not necessarily a mitigating factor, ski patrol member James Margolis told the Gazette-Journal. Margolis said any 60-foot  fall from the chair lift would be “lethal, whether it’s in good conditions or bad.”

State officials and the Sugar Bowl Corporation both are conducting investigations. Monson said a state-led, independent inspection of the chair lift concluded that there were no malfunctions.

“We’re trying to work through what happened,” Monson said. He noted that there were conflicting reports as to what actually happened before the boy fell. “It’s our responsibility to gather all statements and determine what happened.”

Sugar Bowl has no minimum age requirement for skiers or snowboarders riding the lift without an adult.

California Accident Lawyers

The trial attorneys at Blackman Legal Group, a California-based law firm founded by renowned trial attorney Clifford Blackman, have successfully represented all types of accident victims and their families for 35 years. The nationwide toll-free number to call for a free consultation is 1-866-692-8126.

A university employee was killed in an elevator accident on a Long Beach campus. (Photo: Long Beach Press-Telegram)

A California State University employee was crushed to death in an elevator accident Wednesday on the Long Beach campus.

•   A Cal State Long Beach employee got trapped in an elevator when it stopped between floors.

•   When she tried to crawl out of the elevator, it suddenly dropped down and crushed her to death.

•   Cal/OSHA is investigating the tragic elevator accident.

The fatal accident occurred shortly after 9 a.m., according to a report in the Long Beach Press-Telegram.

Cal State Long Beach spokeswoman Toni Beron said 48-year-old Huntington Beach resident Annette Lujan — who had worked in the university’s grants and contracts office for nine years — was trapped in an elevator on the third floor of a building at 6300 State University Drive.

The elevator had gotten stuck between floors and Lujan was trying to crawl out when the elevator suddenly shifted downward and crushed her, Long Beach fire captain Rich Brandt said. She died at the scene.

It took the fire department’s Urban Search and Rescue team more than an hour to hoist the elevator with a rope and pulley system so they could free Lujan’s body, Brandt said.

Dozens of Lujan’s co-workers gathered outside the building. They were visibly upset and were trying to console one another.

The building where the accident took place is 15 to 20 years old, Beron said. It has two elevators, one of which was closed for repairs at the time of the accident.

The building’s only available elevator, which malfunctioned before the fatal accident, had passed an annual safety inspection on April 5 and its safety requirements were up to date, according to Califoria Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) spokesperson Erika Monterroza. Elevators must pass a thorough, four-hour safety inspection each year, Monterroza said.

Brandt said the tragic accident is a reminder for people to never try to climb out of a trapped elevator on their own.

“It’s a mechanical device that’s unforgiving,” he said. “What we ask people to do is remain calm and wait for help to arrive.”

The fatal elevator accident is being investigated by the Long Beach Fire Department, Cal/OSHA, and campus police.

Long Beach Elevator Accident Lawyers

The trial attorneys at Blackman Legal Group, a California-based law firm founded by renowned trial attorney Clifford Blackman, have successfully represented elevator accident victims and their families for 35 years. The nationwide toll-free number to call for a free consultation is 1-866-692-8126.