The Times-Tribune
CORBIN —
By Samantha Swindler / Managing Editor
A North Corbin man was flown to University of Kentucky Medical Center Wednesday night after being struck by the snapping trunk of a falling tree.
According to witnesses, Raymond Bullis was standing on a step ladder against the base of a large walnut tree in his backyard on Park Hill Road off U.S. 25E. He was attempting to cut down the tree, which was estimated by witnesses at about 40-feet tall, with the help of friends and family members.
When the tree fell at about 10 p.m., it broke along a diagonal cut, with the lowest point facing toward Bullis. That part of the snapping trunk hit Bullis, sending him flying about 10-12 feet before he landed among previously cut limbs.
“As soon as the tree fell I started yelling his name and I didn’t get an answer, so I ran over here as quick as I could and held his head up and held him until the ambulance got here,” said Bullis’ step-son Brandon Smith. “He wasn’t responding, he wouldn’t open his eyes, nothing.”
West Knox Volunteer Fire Department was called out to the scene. West Knox Chief Darryl Baker said Bullis was unconscious but breathing when he was loaded into an ambulance, but had regained consciousness and was speaking by the time he was boarded onto the medical helicopter.
Emergency workers set up a landing zone in the parking lot of the Vendor’s Mall at 25E and 25, and flew Bullis to UK Medical Center at about 10:30 p.m. He was listed in fair condition early Wednesday morning.
Baker estimated Bullis was unconscious for 15-20 minutes.
The original dispatch call reported that two men were trapped by the fallen tree. At the scene, emergency responders learned that another man, Fred Frost, was below the tree when it fell with all its branches, but was not injured.
Smith said the family was cutting down the tree with hopes of making some extra money.
“That kind of tree is worth money, and that’s why we were cutting it down, so we could sell it. They were supposed to come in the morning and pick it up,” he said.
Another tree, which had been cut down yesterday, was leaning against the second tree, and it too fell when the second tree came down.
The result was a backyard nearly impassible from large tree branches.
Baker said Smith did the right thing in stabilizing Bullis’ head until EMT workers could arrive.
“He said from watching TV and stuff, he thought that was what he was supposed to do,” Baker said. “And he was right, that was what he was supposed to do.”
