Terrifying Tree Crash

By Tracey Petersen Published Feb 28, 2014 07:41 pm Updated Mar 9, 2014 06:49 pm

Mi-Wuk Village, CA — A local mother calls a tree smashing just inches from her sleeping baby “terrifying”.

The accident happened Wednesday around 9:30 p.m. on Lama Road in Mi-Wuk Village. Sarah Guyer, her husband, her mother, two-year-old daughter and one-year-old son were all in the home when the tree came crashing down on their two story house.

Fire Officials believe high winds caused the dead, 80-foot pine tree from a neighbor’s yard to snap. The family was in the downstairs living room when the tree hit.

“It was like a bomb had hit the house,” says Guyer. “Then when we stood up it was like the house had bounced down and then back up.”

Seconds later, Guyer’s husband realized that their baby boy was asleep upstairs. He took off running and found a tree had ripped a hole in the ceiling above the baby’s crib and debris was everywhere, well almost everywhere.

Guyer explains, “It went around his crib, underneath his crib and all over his room, but completely avoided the actual crib; so there was nothing inside his crib. We’re thanking God for that one. It was just like a protective bubble around him.” There was not even a scratch on the baby boy.

The tree also punched through the ceiling of the master bedroom and caused structural damage to the house. It broke into several pieces on and around the home. Arborists cleared a large section of the pine off the top of the house this afternoon. Guyer will find out next Tuesday, when an inspection by a structural engineer will be done, if the house can be saved or if it will have to be demolished.

“All the support beams in our roof are completely snapped,” she says. “Our support braces in the downstairs portion of the house have completely moved or are tilted and the structure (foundation) has moved some.”

Guyer says fire officials told her that if the tree had been alive it would have been much heavier and the accident would have been 100 times worse. She shudders to think what could have happened and is thankful her loved ones were not injured in the accident.