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A man who parked his car in central Auckland today before going to work returned from a break to find it crushed under a large tree.
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Siosifa Kava had parked her car under the tree and was on her way to work today. Source: 1 NEWS
Siosifa Kava told 1 NEWS that he left for a smoke around 1.30pm and his friends called him saying that his car had been crushed under a tree where it was parked in Saint Patricks Square on Wyndham Street.
“I was surprised, I didn’t think it was true,” he said.
“I parked it here this morning before work started and I went to work and then, yeah, I was surprised to come and see my car like this.”
A team of firefighters was on site to secure the area and assess the damage. Station officer Peter Cranwell said the tree had crushed a vehicle and was on top of another vehicle.
“Luckily. We checked to make sure no one was in the vehicle. We found the owner, but they were not in the vehicle when the tree fell on him,” he said.
He couldn’t say why the tree fell or if it was rotting.
Auckland Council arborist Basile Privat said it was an exotic Melia tree that could be up to 20 years old.
He said the cleanup would take about two hours, after arranging for two crews to come down, cut down the tree and remove it from the site to be safe.
“There is hardly any decomposition at the top and around the trunk, but it is mainly at the base,” he said.
“But it’s hard to really say,” he said, adding that he hoped Auckland City Council would investigate the cause of the fall.
The owner of a neighboring restaurant, Michael Dearth, owner of The Grove, told 1 NEWS that the tree had been there for the 17 years that he had his restaurant in operation.
“He was always a great presence, and it’s sad because he smelled lovely,” he said.
