Tree falls and kills woodcutter

A logwood cutter from Spanish Lookout is dead after a tree fell on top of him in the Yalbac area behind that community. Reports reaching News Five are that on Sunday at around four p.m., forty-six year old John Penner, an employee of the Yalbac Sawmill, was fighting a fire along with Henry Dueck. Dueck was allegedly operating a Caterpillar bulldozer and toppling trees to create a firebreak. We are told that as he did that the vines holding a tree to surrounding brush caused it to swing in the wrong direction and to fall on top of Penner. Police say when they arrived on the scene at around seven thirty that night they observed Penner lying on the ground with the large tree on top of his left shoulder. Eyewitness reports indicate that an eight inch branch hit him on the head, and he also broke his arm and leg. He died on the spot. The company declined to comment on the incident, except to offer condolences to Penner’s family.