Tree collapses and takes out three fences
Adrienne Place residents say their complaints about hollowed out trees lining their road have fallen on deaf ears.
A HUGE Flamboyant tree crashed onto three properties’ fences and stranded residents of Adrienne Place, a dead-end road, in Glenashley last week when it collapsed.
Joan McCauley, who reported the incident to Northglen News the morning it happened (Wednesday 5 March), said a massive cloud of ants flew out as the tree collapsed, taking out her fence and gate and the fences of two neighbours.
“I am in the process of paving my driveway and thank goodness it rained on the day, because the tree could have killed one of the workmen paving the driveway,” McCauley said.
Residents were trapped and gathered at the bottom of the road to watch patiently as eThekwini Municipality’s Parks Department employees cut its massive branches into smaller pieces and loaded it onto a removal truck.
But McCauley and other residents said they had complained about the Flamboyant trees that line the road and are all riddled with white ants, before but to no avail.
“I tried for a good few months about two years ago to have the municipality remove the trees, or at least cut the massive branches overhanging our properties. They did cut branches, but did nothing about my concerns of the trees being hollowed by the amount of white ants inside.
“But now the tree has fallen and caused massive damages to our properties. I have just had my walls painted, got a new gate and I’m paving the driveway,” McCauley added.
Another resident, Keith Upton, said: “We could hear the first cracks before the tree fell over. It sounded like someone moving a big rubbish bin.”
But soon afterwards Upton said he heard a thunderous sound, followed by the crack of electricity just above his house.
“We ran outside to see what happened and saw the tree had fallen. I then noticed that the tree also snapped an electricity cable, which was still live. We called the municipality, who sent municipal workers over shortly afterwards,” Upton said.
Billy Hall-Jones, who lives further up the road, said his expensive machinery blew as a result of the power cut.
“I’ve lived in my house for 64 years and this is not the first time one of these trees have fallen over. We’ve seen municipal workers cut large branches, but then they don’t cap them, which would prevent alien plants from growing on them or prevent the wood from rotting. White ants won’t attack healthy trees, so by doing small things, this situation could have been prevented,” Hall-Jones said.
