- March 29, 2024
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One Winter Park family is without a home after a tree fell onto their house along Douglas Avenue last month. And now, city staff is urging local residents to check their trees for warning signs of decay to keep similar incidents from happening again.
A Laurel Oak sitting just behind the home fell on the roof Thursday, June 18, causing the ceiling to collapse on Brandon Lamar’s home. Winter Park code enforcement has since deemed the house unsafe to live in, forcing Lamar and his grandmother to stay elsewhere.
"I was laying in bed on the phone," Lamar told WFTV Channel 9. "I heard a loud cracking sound. Any other time, I think it was like sticks falling on top of the house. [It] just kept getting louder, louder."
City Arborist Dru Dennison said following the incident that the tree appeared to be over mature, ready to collapse and was likely knocked down by a recent heavy rainstorm.
“We did not assess the tree because it was on private property, however, from the photos seen after the incident, it appears to have been in decline,” Dennison said. “The pictures showed it has a significant amount of decay.”
Dennison and Winter Park staff have been inspecting trees throughout the city and removing those deemed “at-risk” of falling down for the past year, but Dennison said Winter Park can only check trees along public right of way.
The tree collapsing on the Douglas Avenue home was outside the city’s purview, Dennison said.
“The city does not inspect trees on private property,” Dennison said. “If a homeowner calls Urban Forestry to remove a tree, we will assess that tree and if our urban forester sees other trees in decline, he/she will bring that to the homeowners’ attention. The homeowner will have to hire an arborist to remove or address the other trees in decline that are on their private property.”
Tell-tale signs a tree is ready to collapse include decay at the base of the tree, dead branches and fungal growth, Dennison said, but it’s difficult to pinpoint at what age a tree reaches an “at-risk” state.
“Each tree is unique and the age of ‘at-risk’ is dependent on the site conditions, environmental conditions, if there has been any previous storm damage and the type of pruning; [those] are just a few examples of what determines the ‘at-risk’ age of a tree,” Dennison said.
The trees along Douglas Avenue mostly appear to be mature oaks ranging from 50 to 60 years old, Winter Park Spokesperson Clarissa Howard said.
Dennison and Assistant City Manager Michelle Del Valle told the Winter Park City Commission last July that the city plans to remove 2,205 dying trees along roads between fiscal years 2014 and 2017 – a safety measure to prevent branches from falling on cars and residents.