(Image: Dylan Connell)
A large tree has toppled onto an outbuilding in a residential area of York.
City of York Council workers were on the scene next to Shannon House in Margaret Street, off Walmgate, on Friday morning (August 7).
Jack Mallon, an arborist with the council, was standing on another outbuilding's roof cutting branches off the tree so it could be removed.
He said the damage was “nothing particularly menacing” and no one was hurt after the tree fell on Thursday.
“No one is hurt and [the damage is] nothing too significant,” he said. “I think it’s a relatively good situation.”
Jack Mallon stands on the roof as he and the council crew remove a tree after it fell onto an outbuilding at Shannon House, near Walmgate, on Friday morning (August 7)
(Image: Dylan Connell)
Arborist Jack Mallon and a council crew remove a tree after it fell onto an outbuilding at Shannon House, near Walmgate, on Friday morning (August 7)
(Image: Dylan Connell)
Mr Mallon could not say what caused the damage but suggested it “could be rot”.
“We tend to get summer branch drops anyway, so we’re reacting to stuff like this all the time,” he said. “It’s always different reasons – it’s quite hard to tell unless it has a survey done on it.”
He said the council crew was making the scene safe so residents could access the outbuilding over the weekend.
“[The tree is] already leaning but we want to make sure the residents can get to these stores and [the tree] isn’t in the way,” he said. “It’s for the residents, to make sure they’re happy and can get to their bin stores – and aren’t worried about it over the weekend.”
City of York Council workers remove a tree after it fell onto an outbuilding at Shannon House, near Walmgate, on Friday morning (August 7)
(Image: Dylan Connell)
City of York Council workers remove a tree after it fell onto an outbuilding at Shannon House, near Walmgate, on Friday morning (August 7)
(Image: Dylan Connell)
John Firth, an Avon House resident, said a fence next to the tree stopped it from “doing any damage to the building”.
“It looks like it’s all rotten that root and just gone,” he said. “It’s also been really windy.”
Mr Firth said if the tree had fallen a “few feet the other way”, it would have hit the main Shannon House building.
The 61-year-old cleaner for City of York Council said he has lived at the adjacent Avon House for 15 years and the tree had always been there.
“You couldn’t get your hands around it – it’s a massive trunk,” he said, adding: “I think it’s rotted away over the years. It looks like it’s rotted over the years and eventually gone.”
He praised the council who he said had been “pretty quick” to remove the tree “which is good”.