How I Almost Died Doing Tree Work | Safety Warning to All Landscapers

The Untrapped Podcast With Keith Kalfas

In today's episode, Keith dives into a pretty intense story that could really make you stop and think.

A few years back, in 2021, Keith had a near-miss that none of us would ever want to face—he almost got seriously hurt while working on a tree job near some high-voltage power lines. And he's shared why that experience serves as a major wake-up call about the realities and risks of working close to electricity. Keith's not just telling this story for kicks—he hopes it opens eyes and might even save a few lives. We'll hear how important it is to be cautious and learn about electrical safety so that nobody finds themselves in a similar scary situation.

So, if you're in the green industry or know someone who is, you'll want to stick around and listen to this one!

Check out these episode highlights:

00:00 Trimmed branches with a telescopic pole saw.

03:17 Felt weird after a close call with danger.

07:13 Firefighter calls it a miracle: mild injury.

10:09 Assume wires are live; check safety videos.

Key Takeaways:

• Keep Your Eyes Peeled: Power lines might look like they're far away, but give them respect and distance—always.

• Assume Every Wire is Hot: Whether it’s an electrical, phone, or even a cable line, treat them all like they’re live. Better safe than sorry, right?

• Know Before You Go: Watch safety videos on electrical hazards and tree work. A little knowledge goes a long way toward keeping you safe.

Connect with Keith

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/keithkalfas/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thelandscapingemployeetrap Website: https://www.keithkalfas.com/resources Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@keith-kalfas

Resources and Websites:

Here's the video and story about our Window Cleaning brother in the UK I was talking about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F_pxfE8A4k

Tree Work Electric hazard awareness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7QgzAauFCQ

Tree Work Electric hazard awareness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILGSn9Rx8f8&t=0s

The Time William and I climbed 115ft. in a tree: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVmT_Nhohjk&t=0s

Tree Work and Arborist Videos playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLub0_q7i2mDRR3pk7GpX3k8JhZiE2IvYm

🙋♂️Get My Free Landscaping Business Startup Video Series Here👇 Here https://www.keithkalfas.com/Landscaping-Series

Landscaping Course https://keith-kalfas.mykajabi.com/store/8bFERMcs

LANDSCAPING BUSINESS How to Guide: https://www.keithkalfas.com/16

Get Jobber: https://getjobber.com/im/ambassador-referral/?gspk=a2VpdGhrYWxmYXM4NTIx&gsxid=Rs6pwtznLDcs

Easy Budgeting Blueprint: keithkalfas.com/budget

Smartphone Video Creation Guide: Keithkalfas.com/smartphone

Identifying Your Superpower: Keithkalfas.com/superpower

Become An influencer And Monetize Your Expertise: https://www.keithkalfas.com/influence

Multiple Ways to Monetize: https://www.keithkalfas.com/multipleways

LevelUp Your Landscaping Business to $100K and beyond: https://www.keithkalfas.com/LEVELUP

Transcript

(Note: this was transcribed using transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)

Keith Kalfas 00:00:05 - 00:00:49

So this goes out as a warning to everybody in the green industry. I almost died a few years ago at work, and I keep avoiding making this video because of my ego is afraid of looking stupid and getting criticized, but I believe that what I'm about to talk about can very much save lives, and so I'm gonna tell you the story. I can't believe I'm making this video. So I'm not doing it for me. I'm doing it for the safety of others. Alright. So 2021, we're doing a tree job, and I'm removing a jack pine tree. This tree was maybe 25 feet tall behind a shed in a backyard. And so I'm actually pretty experienced doing tree work.

Keith Kalfas 00:00:49 -00:01:53

I just don't post it on social media, and well, there was primary power lines, but they were 15 feet away from the tree and way high up, so they're about 10 feet away and then another 12 feet up. I mean, they were so far back and up in the air that once I was up in the tree and I started removing branches, they're behind me. I stopped paying attention to them because they were literally really far away. Right? Well, there's this thing I needed to trim a branch in front of me that I couldn't reach and get out to. So I'll tell my guy on the ground, I'll be like, yo, hand me the Stihl PP 800. It's a telescoping 18-foot aluminum pruning telescoping pruner pole and with the saw head on it. Right? You attach the saw head. And what I'll do with it, I'm up in the tree, is he'll extend it all the way out and then push it up to me, and I'll reach down and grab it, and then I'll fish it up behind me, and then I'll collapse it back down and just trim what I need to trim.

Keith Kalfas 00:01:53 - 00:02:23

Well, in this instance, dude, I got my gear on ropes, I got my gaffes, which are my spikes, I got my saddle. I got my buck strap my lanyard around the tree. I've got my pruning saw. I'm fully geared up, and I'm in the tree. It's a dry, hot July day. Very hot, very dry out. And as I'm fishing, the saw up, and it's going higher and higher and higher behind me because I stopped paying attention to this wide-open aluminum primary line. I don't know how many volts it is.

Keith Kalfas 00:02:23 - 00:03:16

Like, let me know in the comments. 12,000 volts. And I've watched a lot of electrical videos. Like, you should just stay the hell away from electrical lines because you could touch something that's touching something that's touching something, and it'll take a full Thanksgiving turkey and set that mug on fire and fry it in like 20 seconds. So anyways, as I'm fishing it up, my hands on the aluminum, bare hand, and I take my hand off the aluminum because that's where, like, there's a rubber grip, and it's not insulated for electrical safety. Soon as my hand goes off the aluminum, I push up one more time, and I grab the rubber grip. I hear tink, and I felt a buzz go through me, and my hair stand on end. And I look behind me and I hit the primary line, and it swings back and goes pink and hits again. It goes bzzzz, dude. I pulled the pole away from the line.

Keith Kalfas 00:03:17 - 00:04:14

Right? Real quick. And my just whole heart my energy dropped. I got rid of the pole real quick, put it through down on the ground, rappelled to the ground, took my gear off, and immediately just walked and sat in my truck. So, as I'm sitting in my truck, this sounds really weird, like an out-of-body experience, and I'm still freaked out about this. There was a part of me that believed that I had died and that my spirit walked over and was sitting in my truck waiting for, like, the ambulance to come and watch my body get carried away and that I was just a witness. Because when you touch an electrical line, aluminum line with an aluminum pole, you don't just not get injured. It either sets your body on fire, your organs explode, your legs explode, you get stuck on it. You're toast.

Keith Kalfas 00:04:14 -00:05:02

You don't touch an electrical line without, first of all, dying, having an instant heart attack, being set on fire, or having severe injuries. And one of our brothers, he's actually in UK, is a window cleaner, and he's water-fed pole. He's cleaning windows two-story building, working hard, and building his business family at home. There was an airline, and the water, it was windy, was like misting off in the air because there's water jets when you clean windows. It's a really cool window-cleaning system, and this could happen to anybody. It arced, and it traveled along the water, ran down the pole into his hands, blew this guy back, like, 10 feet, and left burn marks in the grass. And this guy is I think he's just getting out of the hospital. He's had, like, 20 surgeries.

Keith Kalfas 00:05:02 - 00:05:41

It's affected his kidneys. He has burnt necrotic tissue, several infections, blood clots. They've had to remove part of his forearm tons of muscle tissue in his legs, and this is permanently negatively affected this guy for the rest of his life. And if you're part of, like, the tree care safety and being a certified arborist, which I'm not, and what is it? The ANSI standards and all this stuff. There's reports that come in every single week about all the injuries that happen across the United States. Most of them are actually homeowners with chainsaws trying to do work themselves or people getting electrocuted, people getting injured, people could it's like it's such a high severe risk.

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Keith Kalfas 00:06:37 - 00:07:13

But especially electrocution. So I got on the phone. I instantly called one of my landscaping clients who climbs power poles and works on electrical lines, and I told him immediately what happened. I was embarrassed on a care. I say, “Hey, Mrs. Jones. Can I talk to Mr. Jones? I know he does this for a living.” I'm I'm the land “What's going on, Keith?” And I was like, I tell him what happened, and he says, “Brother, all I can say is that the good lord was on your side today, and that's a miracle that you are not burnt, and you are still here with us. The good lord is on your side.”

Keith Kalfas 00:07:13 - 00:08:00

I get on the phone with a retired firefighter lieutenant, and I tell him the story. Firefighters are highly trained when it comes to electricity. And he says, “Brother, what happened to you today was nothing short of a miracle. That you were okay.” Now, I did have some back pain for about 2 weeks. It wasn't too bad, but I felt like I had some kidney pain going on. It could have been from the saddle that I was in, just like a muscle. I can't tell. And I was very shaken up, but I talked to somebody else. I don't wanna throw them under the bridge, but I talked to one of my best friends who does tree work for a living. And he's, like, basically, well, he took it very serious, but he was also, like, I was overreacting.

Keith Kalfas 00:08:00 - 00:08:29

He's, like, “Quit being a wuss. Bro, what are you afraid of a little bit of electricity? I mess with electricity every day.” So, anyway but, I'm just trying to joke around to lighten it up a little bit. It's not funny. Oh, yeah. Here's the weird part I'll share. You know how, like, parallel universes? Sometimes, when I'm around my wife, I will think about that moment, and I feel very blessed. So if you're sitting around your house and you're bored and it's like a Sunday, you got no reason to be bored.

Keith Kalfas 00:08:29 - 00:09:08

If you are healthy and you're still here, you won. Okay? But I look at my wife sometimes, and I go, like, what if I really didn't make it that day, and it split off into like an alternate reality? I know that sounds crazy and like don't think that, don't think that, that's crazy thoughts because you know, it's like some.. Anyway, so here's the moral of the story, man. Stay the hell away from electricity and electrical lines. If you see a downline, don't even go near it. Don't even pick up branches. Dude, there could literally be. Oh yeah, also, the power line guy said maybe because it was so dry out that it didn't have anywhere to ground. My spikes were in the tree.

Keith Kalfas 00:09:08 -00:09:35

Right? If I would have been touching the aluminum, it probably would have fried me. But I was touching the rubber grip. The rubber grips and not insulated for electrical protection. Like, so You know, I was barehanded. It was dry out. My spikes, I was wearing long pants, and I was wearing gaffes that were coming off of rubber boots going into the tree. The electricity didn't have any place to go through me and ground. So it allegedly, I think, it kinda went in me and just went back out. It didn't have anywhere to ground.

Keith Kalfas 00:09:35 - 00:10:09

Say if it grounded out of my right gaff into the tree, it would have blown a hole in my leg or set my leg on fire. Right? So I was, like, so extremely lucky. I don't know what I would. I guess my gut says that was probably less than a 10%, maybe a seven, or as low as a 3% chance. 3% that I didn't get injured at all. Freaking unbelievable. So I feel incredibly blessed. So stay away from electricity. If you're trimming some tall shrubs and there's lines going through it, I don't think you should do it.

Keith Kalfas 00:10:09 - 00:10:53

There's phone lines, cable lines, internet lines. You should treat every single wire as if it's live and active. You know, I'm gonna put some links in the description below to electrical safety training videos. That wasn't the next thing I'm gonna say. Spend an hour watching videos of tree workers failing, dropping trees on houses, crushing vehicles, getting injured, being projected, you know, like a projectile 30 feet their whole body because they get hit by a branch. Literally, them being set on fire and being fried to death like a roasting marshmallow. Watch electrical safety training videos of where, like, they'll have like a wagon and then a pole and then something else and then they'll touch a stick with these big rubber gloves to a hot dog—five things touching the wire.

Keith Kalfas 00:10:53 - 00:11:17

Five independent things, and then they touch a hot dog to it, and the hot dog freaking sets on fire. So it what it is. It's a silent unaliber. It's a silent. You don't know that it happened until it happened. So you could just be walking up, and it's totally quiet. Just watch all the videos, man. Alright, I'm going back to running my Saturday errands. I got that off my chest. I hope that saves someone's life or protects somebody.

Keith Kalfas 00:11:17 - 00:11:22

I'm so thankful that I'm here and everything's okay, and I ain't never doing that ever again.