Tree falls on Vancouver house after heavy rain

A large tree fell onto a house in Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant neighbourhood Saturday morning after a night of heavy rain in the city.

Assistant Fire Chief Mike Anzulovich told CTV News the tree fell around 8:40 a.m., and thankfully there was no structural damage to the house and nobody was injured.

He said a city arborist attended the scene on East 10th Avenue near St. George’s Street to cut the tree down.

As of Sunday afternoon, the tree was still there and cordoned off with yellow caution tape.

In an email Monday, a spokesperson for the City of Vancouver said staff are working to procure a crane so the tree can be removed.

“We don’t anticipate any traffic impacts during the tree work, however the bike lane may be impacted. We ask the public to please keep an eye out for detour signage,” the spokesperson wrote.

Based on reports to 311, the city says this was the only major fallen tree incident in Vancouver over the weekend.

“I woke up to the sound of sort of like a damp creaking noise outside of my window,” Guy Miller, who lives across the street, told CTV News. He says he ran to the window and watched the tree come down.

What exactly caused the tree to fall is unknown, Vancouver Fire Rescue Services says, but it cracked during the aftermath of a record-breaking rainstorm that lasted Friday night to early Saturday morning.

It was the wettest Aug. 24 in Vancouver’s history, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada data, which says the city received 26.7 millimetres of rain on Saturday, surpassing the previous record for the date of 17.6 millimetres set in 2008.