Police said the tree that fell was not the one the crew had been hired to remove.
NEWTOWN SQUARE, PA — A 43-year-old tree service worker was killed just before 11 a.m. Tuesday after a large tree fell on him during storm cleanup at a home on Earles Lane in Newtown Township, authorities and local reports said.
Police identified the worker as Gilberto Sinecio Feregrino of West Chester. His death came less than a day after strong storms swept across the Philadelphia region, knocking down trees, damaging power lines and sending cleanup crews into neighborhoods hit by wind and rain. The immediate questions are what made the tree give way, whether the overnight storm weakened it, and whether any workplace safety violations played a role. Federal workplace investigators were reported at the property Tuesday as officials began to sort through what witnesses described as a sudden and shocking collapse.
According to local police and multiple news reports, Feregrino was part of a crew working in the yard of a home on the 300 block of Earles Lane. The crew had been removing storm debris and tending to another tree when a separate tree came down and struck him. Newtown Township Police Chief Christopher Lunn said the tree that fell was unrelated to the work being done by the company, a detail repeated by other local outlets that interviewed officials and people at the scene. The Delaware County Medical Examiner’s Office pronounced Feregrino dead after the collapse. Reports differed slightly on what the crew had been hired to do before the accident, but accounts agreed on the central point: the fatal tree was not the one being cut at that moment. That left investigators and workers trying to understand why it fell when it did, hours after the worst of the weather had moved through the area.
Neighbors and nearby workers described a busy cleanup scene before the accident. Scott Novak, who lives next door, told FOX 29 he heard trees falling throughout the morning as crews worked in the neighborhood. Tree service equipment and cut limbs remained scattered across the property later in the day, according to television footage from the scene. CBS Philadelphia reported Feregrino had been near a wood chipper when the tree collapsed. Local outlets also identified his employer as Flynn Tree Services. One unresolved point is the condition of the tree before it fell. Jeff Linton, owner of another local tree company who stopped at the site, said he saw signs of root rot at the base. Linton said that kind of decay can leave a tree unstable, especially after wind and saturated ground, though investigators had not publicly assigned a cause as of Wednesday. No public report had yet said whether the tree showed obvious external warning signs before it came down.
The death unfolded against a wider regional cleanup after severe weather Monday night across southeastern Pennsylvania, South Jersey, Delaware and nearby Maryland. News reports from the Philadelphia area described widespread downed trees, snapped utility poles and scattered power outages after the storm line moved through. The National Weather Service also confirmed tornado damage in parts of Delaware and Maryland from the same weather system, underscoring how unstable conditions were across the region. In Delaware County and beyond, crews spent Tuesday clearing blocked roads, damaged yards and broken branches. That context matters because tree work after storms often combines urgency with unusual risk. Trees can shift, split or remain hung up in ways that are difficult to predict after heavy wind and rain. In this case, local reporting suggests the collapse happened roughly 12 hours after the storms had passed, a timing that made the accident even more unsettling for experienced workers who said the danger can linger well after skies clear.
As of Wednesday evening, no charges had been announced and no enforcement findings had been made public. FOX 29 reported that investigators from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration were at the home Tuesday evening. In a fatal workplace case, OSHA typically reviews job conditions, equipment, training and whether federal safety standards were followed, though the agency does not release final conclusions immediately. Local police have publicly described the death as an accident, but that does not end the investigative process. Authorities still need to determine the exact chain of events, including where Feregrino was standing, what work the crew was performing seconds before the collapse and whether the tree’s condition was visible in advance. Any autopsy or medical examiner findings would address the cause and manner of death, while OSHA’s review would focus on workplace hazards and employer compliance. The next formal milestone is likely the release of additional findings by investigators or labor officials, though no public date had been announced.
The scene left neighbors and people in the tree business shaken. Linton, the local tree company owner, said the loss hit hard because of how dangerous the work can be even for seasoned crews. “I got 44 years doing this,” he said in local television interviews, adding that he has long understood the risks that come with climbing, cutting and clearing damaged trees. Novak, the neighbor, called the incident terrible and said fallen trees are a recurring problem in the area after storms. The neighborhood around Earles Lane is heavily wooded, and the work of clearing one damaged tree can unfold under the shadow of others that may also be stressed. By late Tuesday, the yard still showed the marks of a job interrupted by tragedy: machinery in place, branches on the ground and a silent worksite where a routine cleanup had turned into a fatal investigation. For Feregrino’s co-workers and family, the ordinary task of post-storm clearing had ended in a sudden death that rattled both residents and fellow arborists.
Police have identified the victim and confirmed the basic sequence of events, but investigators had not publicly said by Wednesday exactly why the tree failed or when additional findings might be released. The next turning point will come when workplace investigators or local authorities issue a fuller account of what happened on Earles Lane.
Author note: Last updated March 19, 2026.