RON HENGGELER |
June 7, 2017
Sunday's close encounter with a falling tree on Fillmore Street
Just before dusk on Sunday, Dave and I went up to Twin Peaks to watch the sunset. I brought my camera to take a few pictures. When we arrived we found that it was too crowded with people, very cold, and incredibly windy. We circled around and drove back down the hill on 17th Street and passed through the busy Castro.
The Castro Theatre was showing a Buster Keaton film on Sunday night, part of the Bay Area's Silent Film Festival. On the way home, as I was headed south on Fillmore Street and just before Fulton where I’d make a right turn to go home, we stopped for a red light at the intersection of Fulton and Fillmore. Moments after I stopped for the red light, there was a loud cracking sound, and in front of us to the right, a huge slice of tree was tearing away from the large tree's trunk, and instantly began falling into the street. Dave shouted, and I put the van in reverse to avoid being hit. In an instant, the tree came down in front of us. Fortunately, most of the tree fell away from us, hitting the street sign, street light, and lamp post, heavily damaging all three. The largest part of the seperated section that would have fallen directly on us, was instead caught in the MUNI overhead wires, and remained standing percariously yet upright on the sidewalk.
I made the turn onto Fulton Street, drove a hundred yards up, and before pulling into our garage I called 911. The Fire Department arrived shortly after the call. Dave walked the two bags of groceries upstairs. I walked down to the corner with my camera and photographed the firemen cutting the tree up with chainsaws, police directing traffic, and eventually the Muni Maintenance Dept. arriving to finish the job. Much of the downed tree was resting hazardously on the Muni overhead lines, and so the 22 Fillmore bus was rerouted away from the intersection and its route on Fillmore Street. Just before going to bed at 1:30am , I went to the window and could see and hear the workers down the street still cutting and shredding the tree.
On Monday, a crew was out cutting up the seperated sections and top-most branches of the tree intwined in the 22 Fillmore's overhead wires. By late afternoon on Monday, the 22 Fillmore service was restored and running normally. On Tuesday and Wednesday, crews worked all day cutting up and reducing the tree even more. Late in the afternoon on Wednesday the tree was gone. On Thursday, I noticed the mangled street sign that was damaged in the tree's fall was gone, and the damaged street light had been replaced with a new lights.
A view of San Francisco as seen from Twin PeaksSundayJune 3 |
Sutro Tower as seen from Twin PeaksSundayJune 3 |
SundayJune 3 |
SundayJune 3 |
SundayJune 3 |
SundayJune 3 |
SundayJune 3 |
SundayJune 3 |
SundayJune 3 |
SundayJune 3 |
SundayJune 3 |
SundayJune 3 |
SundayJune 3 |
SundayJune 3 |
SundayJune 3 |
SundayJune 3 |
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SundayJune 3 |
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SundayJune 3 |
SundayJune 3 |
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SundayJune 3 |
SundayJune 3 |
SundayJune 3 |
SundayJune 3 |
SundayJune 3 |
MondayJune 4 |
MondayJune 4 |
MondayJune 4 |
MondayJune 4 |
MondayJune 4 |
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TuesdayJune 5 |
TuesdayJune 5 |
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TuesdayJune 5 |
ThursdayJune 7 |
ThursdayJune 7 |
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