A two-year-old boy was crushed by a redwood tree that fell onto his mobile home in Sonoma County during a rainstorm.
According to the Occidental Volunteer Fire Department, the toddler, identified as Aeon Tocchini, was found under a pile of debris in the destroyed home.
On the evening of Wednesday night, January 4, a fierce rainstorm with powerful winds intensified over Sonoma County. Aeon’s mother, Aisha Tocchini, was walking toward their home, a double-wide trailer just outside Occidental, where she and her family had lived for almost two years.
Their trailer home was parked under huge redwood trees that line much of the ridge near Occidental. Aisha was returning home from work and checking on her sheep, goats, and horses when she heard a huge crack. She watched in horror as one of the trees crushed down on the home.
Her husband, Dan Tocchini, and their son, Aeon, were inside the mobile home when the tree came down.
According to the mom, her husband ran out of the wrecked house screaming. She learned that the tree had fallen on their son as he was sitting on a couch in the home. When the tree fell through the roof, Dan Tocchini was about five feet away from the toddler.
Speaking to a reporter, Aisha said that she thought her husband and son had died.
The tree pinned the toddler, fondly nicknamed Goldie, because of his hair color.
With the help of several neighbors, the parents freed the boy from the wreckage. In their attempt to free their son, they tried to drive their truck, which was already damaged by the fallen tree, into the tree trunk, so they could shift it. When that didn’t work, they took a saw and cut enough pieces off the tree to free the toddler.
The Occidental Volunteer Fire Department got to the scene around 5 pm. Fire Chief Ronald Lunardi said he saw the child’s father carrying the injured two-year-old.
They rushed the child to emergency personnel stationed at the scene. They performed CPR on Aeon, but despite their best efforts, they could not revive him. According to the Sonoma County Sheriff, EMS pronounced him dead at 5:48 pm.
Dan Tocchini’s sister, Liz Haskins, said the boy was the joy of their family, adding that he loved dancing and represented some hope to the family.
Although Dan Tocchini was badly scratched, he was physically unhurt. Loved ones and family flocked to the property on Thursday to help and support the family amid the devastating loss.
A second redwood tree fell on the house, killing the family cat.
Aeon had two more siblings, Danny and Eden, who were not injured during the incident. The two were with their mother at the time, outside the home.
A relative set up a GoFundMe for the toddler’s family. A message on the account said that Dan had lost his son and his home, adding that three redwood trees fell on the family home and his truck. The funds raised, over a quarter million dollars, would go to Aeon’s funeral costs and rebuilding the family.
