CENTER TWP — A man was injured cutting firewood Monday afternoon when part of a tree hit him in the woods along South Benbrook Road, authorities said.

“A piece of the tree fell down and struck him in the head and leg,” said Nathan Wulff, an assistant chief with the Unionville Volunteer Fire Department.

An ambulance took the man, who is believed to be in his 60s, to a Pittsburgh hospital with apparent moderate injuries. His condition was not immediately known.

Authorities said the man, who lives nearby on the 200 block of South Benbrook Road in Center Township, had been cutting wood for most of the morning. He was with a neighbor around 1:15 p.m. when the accident took place.

The neighbor called 911 and later used a Gator utility vehicle to shuttle Wulff back to the injured man about one-quarter mile from the road and a driveway.

“He was conscious and alert,” Wulff said, and in pain. A Butler Ambulance Service crew tended to him. He was eventually placed in a Stokes rescue basket.

Rescuers contacted the Oneida Valley Volunteer Fire Department, which brought a utility task vehicle that is specially equipped to hold a Stokes basket or stretcher.

“It's fortunate he had someone with him,” Wulff said of the injured man, “or he could have been laying there for some time.”

Wulff also praised the Oneida Valley VFD. Without its rescue vehicle, he noted, rescuers would have had to carry the man back to the road.