NY Firefighter Dies in Off-Duty ‘Freak Accident'

A tree trimmer was crushed by a stack of heavy mud mats at a New York campground, the sheriff’s office said.

Aaron Terpstra was working for a tree service company at Kittatinny campgrounds in Barryville on Feb. 23 when he was killed, Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office Undersheriff Eric Chaboty told McClatchy News.

Terpstra was cleaning mud off the mats before placing them on a cherry picker truck, Chaboty said.

A gust of wind knocked over a pile of 13 mats onto Terpstra, he said. Chaboty called it a “freak accident.”

Each mat weighed 50 to 100 pounds, he said. The mats are used to keep the truck from getting stuck in the mud during jobs.

N.G. Gilbert Corporation, the tree service company, is contracted by an area utility company to help clear trees along power lines, Chaboty said.

A co-worker standing in the bucket attached to the truck saw Terpstra and tried to remove the mats from on top of him, Chaboty said.

The worker checked his pulse before calling 911, and Terpstra was still alive, he said.

When he checked his pulse a second time, Chaboty said he couldn’t find one.

Terpstra was pronounced dead at the scene after medical responders tried to perform life-saving measures on the man, he said.

He was a firefighter with the White Lake Fire Company.

“This is a devastating loss to his family and to our firefighting family. Aaron had his whole life ahead of him and it was certainly a bright one,” the fire department posted on Facebook. “We will be grieving this loss for a long time to come.”

Terpstra liked to hunt, fish, shoot and hike with his three dogs.

Barryville is in southeast New York and borders Pennsylvania.

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