A contractor hired by the Avalon Court Apartments to cut up and take down a tree miscalculated and caused an 80 foot tree to come crashing down onto the near by Brittany Springs apartments yesterday, January 23. When the tree fell it took down power lines which cut power to hundreds of people in the area.
The incident unfolded when the contractor realized he had made an error and called twp authorities. Emergency officials arrived and quickly evacuated "D" building . The contractor simply put a cut in the tree about a quarter of the way up, on the trunk. All of the limbs were still intact. As he tied the tree to a small car and a truck, he realized the tree was going to fall where he did not want it to fall.
PECO was called to secure power, as primary and secondary lines were in danger of falling. Fire Police were called to keep people away. Another tree contractor was called to offer an opinion. Before any real decision could be made, the tree came down by itself, taking down the power lines. The apartment complexes are headed by electric power. The power was out for several hours.
The temperature outside was in the teens to low 20's The second contractor wound up cutting up the fallen tree. It just missed the apartment building by centimeters. Had it fallen a few feet more, there would have been serious structural damage done to the building.
THIS ARTICLE AND PHOTO ARE COPYRIGHT BY ALEX LLOYD GROSS AND MAY NOT BE REPUBLISHED OR REPOSTED WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION.
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