Family lucky as tree crashes into house during storm

Yvonne Connolly’s son Adam aged 11, arrived home from school to find the tree had fallen into the side of the family’s Laurelvale home and was wedged against the roof.

Yvonne, who also has a 14 year old daughter Rebecca, explained: “My husband had arranged to meet Adam at the house at the same time but got delayed with the weather so arrived ten minutes later. In this time Adam had rang both of us to let us know and went and told his friend’s dad who rang the fire brigade.”

Yvonne is thankful the incident happened when no-one was at home.

“The gable wall the tree fell against was the wall of both children’s bedrooms,” she said. “We are so glad it didn’t happen at night and the tree surgeon, James from the Tree Company, said it was lucky the tree was so close to the house. If it had been 10-15 feet further away it would have caused more damage and possibly gone right through. We are just lucky there is no lasting structural damage, everything damaged is fixable.”

Yvonne stressed however that she and her husband didn’t know what action to take or what emergency services to call.

“We were at a total loss as what to do when we discovered it and naively thought emergency services/DOE would help. But no we were on our own.

“I believe the tree surgeon prevented the tree from causing more damage to the house by arriving so quickly and taking action. He worked right through past nine until it was no longer a threat to the house. He didn’t use any heavy machinery or lifting equipment just ropes and climbing gear and several chain saws. No doubt it’s just a job to him but I thought he was really brave and will always believe that he saved my house.

“We do miss the tree, however, we now really look differently at trees we see in terms of the potential havoc that can be caused.

“It has been a stressful week and now that the threat of the tree is removed we are having to deal with loss adjusters.”

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