A Tree Snapped at its Base in Chestnut Park Saturday Night (PHOTOS)

A large pine tree snapped in  amid strong winds on Saturday night, cutting power for about seven hours at up to a dozen houses in the area. Nearby resident Julie Bower took some photos and sent them to Davis Patch along with the description below. 

It's worth noting that we ran a letter to the editor Friday that was , who was laid off (along with eight other employees) the day after the community voted to renew the Park Tax. That letter was picked up by CBS 13 and has generated plenty of conversation.

Bower shared some more information about the photos via email: 

It was from the crazy wind we had yesterday, I suspect.  We were in our house with the windows open (seen in the pictures) and heard the tree fall, followed by lots of popping sounds, which I think were the power lines breaking or arcing.  

The tree fell mostly on the park property, but a few of the top branches did hit a house on Penny Place. The resident was home at the time but said he was not hurt and his house didn't seem to be seriously damaged. The fire station responded with two trucks (thankfully without sirens). The firemen (or PG&E) used chain saws in the middle of the night to remove the branches from the private property, leaving the rest of the tree as you see it now. The power was out from about 11:30/45pm-6:50am.

It's interesting that this tree snapped at the base of the trunk, rather than the roots uplifting. You can see in some of the pictures that the asphalt path is perhaps raised a little, but not enough to cause any cracking or anything.  This tree had an owl nesting box in it...I hope the birds were okay.

The first thought that came to my mind when this happened was that story about how the city of Davis laid off the entire tree maintenance crew. Ironic, eh?

Davis Patch will be reporting on the layoffs this week. Do you have any questions you'd like to have answered? 

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