DAVIE, Fla. – The first Hurricane Irma-related death reported in South Florida happened Thursday in Davie, authorities said.
Davie police said a 57-year-old man died after falling off a ladder while putting up shutters at a home in the Shenandoah area.
"I never seen anything like that in my life, though. So, it's really graphic," Austin Doan said.
Police said the man was hired to put up the shutters and did not live at the house where the accident occurred.
"I woke up and I heard, like, screaming, like lots of screaming from my backyard. And I thought it was the neighbors," Doan said. "But it turns out the man my mom hired to put up the shutters fell, and I heard them say his pulse stopped."
Authorities said the victim fell from the second floor and struck his head on a pool deck.
Doan's neighbor, Mike Baselisce, a former emergency medical services captain from Palm Beach County who retired last week went to the scene of the accident to assist.
"I went over there and he was still breathing, and then he stopped," Baselisce said. "We moved him over, started CPR. He started breathing again. I went out to check to see where rescue was at, and when I went back there, his pulse was gone at that point."
Neighbors said the man and his nephew were trying to make extra cash by installing shutters on the second floor of homes in the area.
"He put the table in the back and the guy put the extension ladder [on it] and it fell down," Jose Choy said.
The victim was taken to Broward Health Medical Center, where he died.
His identity has not been released.
Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue spokesman Mike Jachles said another man in his 50s fell off a roof Friday in the 5200 block of Southwest 114th Way in Cooper City, also while putting up shutters.
That man was taken to Memorial Regional Hospital. His condition has not been released.