ORANGE CITY, Fla. – A large oak tree crashed into an apartment building Monday morning in Orange City, displacing several residents and animals, officials said.
No one was injured in the incident, which prompted the evacuation of four units at the Whispering Oaks apartments on Smith Street, east of South Volusia Avenue.
The city said two of the units are uninhabitable and the other two are still being inspected.
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The Orange City Fire Department posted photos to Facebook showing the tree crashing through the roof of a building, with insulation strewn about a unit.
David Monagas, one of the residents, said it was a close call.
“If I would have stayed another three minutes, I would have gotten hit,” he said, “the branch went right through like a spear, it just came right through the ceiling.”
Monagas said he was leaving for work around six in the morning.
“I’m barely closing the door and all of a sudden this kaboom, bash, break, glass and I turn back and open the door and I’m like what happened,” he said.
When he opened his front door back up, he said there was a huge tree branch poking right through the roof. He said he was afraid this would happen for some time.
“When you sit back here and relax, you can hear trees fall and the cracking,” he said.
The city’s fire marshall told News 6 they don’t have an exact reason for the tree’s collapse but said it appeared to have some rot and confirmed it was not weather-related.
He said the fire department has been called to the complex in the past for trees falling near or hitting units, especially during hurricanes, but the trees sit on a next-door property that’s privately owned. It would be up to that owner to take any trees down to prevent more problems in the future.
Fire officials said the “scene will remain active as units and officials work to stabilize the scene and mitigate any remaining hazards.”