Avoid camping in ponderosa forest in high wind

The following article is from the Arizona Daily Sun in Flagstaff, Wednesday, December 09, 2009.

Tempe firefighter killed by tree snapped by wind

A Tempe firefighter was killed by a falling tree during severe winds Monday evening. According to information from the Coconino County Sheriff's Office, Skylar Stock, 27, of Queen Creek, died while he was sleeping in his tent. He and a friend had been camping near the Blue Ridge area off Highway 260 about 20 miles from Camp Verde. The men were elk hunting. Sheriff's detectives determined that Stock and his friend, at about 10 p.m., were camping in an area of high wind gusts that snapped a ponderosa pine tree in two. The broken-off trunk was about 2 feet thick and about 70 feet long. It hit Stock in the head, killing him. The friend, also in the tent at the time, was not injured and was able to escape the tent to call for emergency responders.