A Richmond man narrowly avoided being crushed Thursday when high winds knocked over a massive tree on his street.
Danny Cabral was with his dog just outside his home on Rosecroft Crescent in South Richmond when the tree slammed into his work van about three feet from where he was standing.
“I couldn’t even hear it coming,” he said, because an excavator was operating on the street at the time.
The pup freaked out, and ran inside.
“Holy cow this is crazy … the street looks like a warzone,” Cabral said.
The tree, a decades-old spruce, was growing on neighbour Eric Yue’s property.
“We’re just lucky nobody got hurt,” Yue said. “Everybody counted their lucky stars they walked away from this.”
A crew, in charge of the excavator, is working on building another house on the block. The tree came down mostly in between the vehicles, so no one was badly hurt, Yue said.
When Yue first moved into the house in 2008, he tried to have the tree removed because it was growing underneath his driveway. A city arborist determined it was healthy at that time, and since the tree was city property, Yue had to let it stay.
He had it evaluated again this summer, and again the city told him it was healthy.
The spruce essentially split down the middle, and part of it is still standing. Yue just hopes that part doesn’t come for his house.
Around 3:30 p.m. police were on scene, and a flatbed truck showed up to take the tree away.
