Unlicensed tree trimmer dies after falling

A man died after he fell 30 feet from a storm-damaged oak he was trimming in Roslyn Heights, Nassau County police said Saturday.

Faustino Santamaria, 51, of Westbury, was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead at 2:10 p.m. Friday, about 45 minutes after falling from the 60-foot-high tree on Hemlock Lane. He and other men were hired by the homeowners to remove trees from the property.

Police said Santamaria fashioned a safety harness out of a rope, tying one end around his waist and the other to a branch, but the rope wasn't strong or secure enough to break his fall.

Santamaria and the others were not licensed tree contractors, police said.

The owners of the home could not be reached for comment. Property records indicate the house belongs to Magdy and Regina Elsirgany, who owned a Brazilian restaurant in Huntington village called Marcia's Kitchen. The restaurant opened in 2007 and has since closed.

Neighbors said many of the trees on the street were planted in the 1950s when William Levitt's son oversaw the landscaping of what was then a recently subdivided estate of high-end homes owned by former officers returning from World War II. Today, the area is still referred to as the Rosyln Country Club.

Three years ago, another large tree fell nearby on I.U. Willetts Road, landing on a car and killing its driver, Jose Machicado, 52.

Neighbors Saturday said a second tree had toppled onto a garage on the Hemlock Lane property during Tropical Storm Irene. `

Santamaria was removing the lower limbs of the oak when he fell, the neighbors said. He had already cut off one bough when the one he was standing on gave way, they said.