Falling tree damages home
Originally published February 8, 2010 at 5:11 p.m., updated February 9, 2010 at 10:15 a.m.
Video
Falling tree damages home
A home was damaged but no one was injured after a tree fell Monday afternoon from the backyard onto a home at 911 Walker Ave.
Kevin Wheatcroft photographs damage done by his neighbor’s tree at 911 Walker Ave., after it fell on the house as a friend of the owner’s daughter attempted to cut it down. Wheatcroft says they had damaged his porch earlier in the day and told he and his daughter to get out of their house before it came down.
From left, David Bussert, Shontel Ritchae, 16, and her mother, Ty Ritchae survey the damage of their house at 911 Walker Ave. after Bussert, Ty’s fiance, accidently cut a tree down that fell on Ty’s family home.
The house at 911 Walker Ave. is damaged by a falling tree.
WENATCHEE — No one was injured Monday after a tree fell from a home’s backyard and onto the house in the 900 block of Walker Avenue.
Three people live in the home — Ty Ritchae and her children, Shontel, 16 and Zach, 13 — but all were outside when the tree fell.
Ty Ritchae’s fiance, David Bussert, and two other people were cutting the tree down as a surprise for Ritchae’s parents, Ed and Peggy McKerlie, who own the home. “The tree was dying, rotting from the inside and dangerous,” said Ritchae.
Before attempting to take down the tree, Bussert warned the next-door neighbor, Kevin Wheatcroft and his paraplegic daughter, Janea Wheatcroft, 20, to leave their house. Branches that fell while they trimmed the tree earlier in the day damaged Wheatcroft’s back porch, where he recently had finished a renovation for Janea.
Bussert said he warned the neighbors to leave their house before the tree fell because “I had an icky feeling” about the tree.
“It was going to come down in a windstorm,” Wheatcroft said. “They were just trying to save the neighborhood.”
The tree hit Ritchae’s residence instead of Wheatcroft’s.
“They had the tree going in the right direction then it crashed right through Shontel’s bedroom,” Ritchae said.
Power to the home had been disconnected earlier in the day, said Mitch Barnes, battalion chief with the Wenatchee Fire Department. “The tree shouldn’t go anywhere else,” he added after surveying the damage. “It’s fairly stable where it’s at.”
Barnes said the Red Cross will contact the Ritchae family for living arrangements.
Rochelle Feil Adamowsky: 664-7153
feil@wenatcheeworld.com
Comments
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jethro (who cares) says...
oops.....................
February 9, 2010 at 6:24 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
luigi (Luigi Belmont) says...
Hillbilly Lumberjacks HAHAHA!
February 10, 2010 at 8:14 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Peggy (Peggy Love) says...
there are some projects best left to those who are trained. large tree removal is one of those projects.
February 10, 2010 at 8:31 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
lurker_berserker (Lurker Berserker) says...
i too came here to laugh at misfortune, as is my wont. but after watching the video segment i have to say this is very sad. i'm sorry for everyone involved.
February 10, 2010 at 10:25 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Peggy (Peggy Love) says...
am not laughing, i just know from experience that large tree removal is not for amateurs.
February 10, 2010 at 2:48 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
luigi (Luigi Belmont) says...
I was laughing at the scene it must have caused not the financial crisis that will follow. I really do feel bad for these people. Im my life I am a do it yourself kind of guy too and yes I have also experienced that oops moment. Its actually not fun to laugh at it until later when you look back on the situation.
February 10, 2010 at 3:42 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Martin (Martin Reginald) says...
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"Ty Ritchae’s fiance, David Bussert, and two other people were cutting the tree down as a surprise for Ritchae’s parents..."
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SURPRISE!!! This was a "Here, hold our beers and watch this" moment. What a buncha numbnuts.
.
February 10, 2010 at 4:02 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Norm (Norm Messer) says...
"large tree removal is not for amateurs"
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Yup.
February 10, 2010 at 7:31 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )