A lumber company employee died in Costa Mesa after a big pile of wood fell and trapped him against a forklift, fire officials said Saturday.
Crews responded to a call about the incident at Ganahl Lumber on Bristol Street around 9:30 p.m. Friday, according to the Costa Mesa Fire & Rescue Department.
They arrived to find a man in his late 20s pinned against a forklift by “several thousand pounds” of lumber, Capt. Joe Noceti told KTLA. The pile appeared to have shifted off its base and tipped over, the captain said.
The man suffered significant trauma and was pronounced dead minutes after paramedics arrived at the location, Noceti said.
Costa Mesa’s urban search and rescue team worked late into the night to remove the pile from the victim so the county coroner could conduct an investigation, according to the Fire Department.
Neither the lumber company nor the Occupational Safety and Health Administration immediately responded to a request for comment. Ganahl Lumber’s website lists 10 locations, seven of them in Orange County.
Authorities provided no further details about the incident.
KTLA’s Alexis Lewis contributed to this report.
