Perth,
Western Australia
February 10, 2007
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Heatwave claims cars
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Two cars were destroyed in blistering heat in recent days – one by fire, the other from a 5m fallen branch. No one was hurt. A 1970 Volkswagen Kombi went up in flames on Ashton Avenue, Claremont, just after 8am on Friday, February 2. Paul Tyler, a local tree lopper who witnessed the inferno, said the Kombi was abandoned on the road and smoke was coming out of the front vents when he went past. "I knew it was going to go up," he said.
He said he did a U-turn and pulled over as more smoke poured out and quickly turned into roaring flames. He warned a man, who had been nearby and trying to hose the fire, and a woman watching, with her child, to stay clear until Fire and Emergency Services arrived. Another man called Scott took pictures. Paul said he had been on his way to do a quote for a client but rang and told them: "I'm sorry I won't make it, I'm with a Kombi on fire." He said: "Rangers rolled up and blocked traffic, so me and Scott sat back and enjoyed the show." He said it took firemen about 15 minutes to arrive. The fire was put out 20 minutes later by Claremont and Daglish crews, who estimated the damage at $4000. Police were not called. Then at 1.30pm on Wednesday, February 7, a 28-year-old Subiaco woman and an 83-year-old North Fremantle woman had a lucky escape when two branches from an 18m eucalyptus tree dropped on their cars on Hamersley Road in Subiaco. The younger woman had been driving under the tree when the first big branch fell, crushing the passenger side of her silver Ford Laser sedan and shattering her windscreen. A tow-truck driver later told her that her car was a write-off. Meanwhile, the older woman had been finishing her lunch while sitting in her blue Toyota Corolla sedan under the shade of the tree, when both branches fell beside her – cracking her front windscreen. Both women said they were shaken but felt fine. The young woman said: "I had just finished lunch in Subiaco and was driving to work when it fell. "I ducked my head, put the brakes on and pulled over." The older woman said: "I ducked my head and kept it ducked, waiting in case another branch fell – and it did." Subiaco workers took 20 minutes to cut up the branches and clear the roads. Police attended and later took the elderly woman home. The other woman was picked up by her boyfriend. Both women had car insurance. A Hamersley Street resident said she had been asking for more than a year to get the tree removed, as it frequently dropped branches and blocked views as she left her driveway. She said: "I told the Subiaco council weeks ago: 'That tree is old and sick and needs trimming right back'. "They did nothing. "Now a big branch has come down and squashed two cars!" She said taxi drivers regularly had their lunch while parked under it and a bus stop was next to it. Subiaco chief executive Chester Burton said: "The shredding of branches can be exacerbated in situations of heat, water stress and high wind. "The city works to reduce the risk of branches dropping through a regular monitoring and maintenance program, which includes quarterly tree inspections and extensive pruning annually of trees identified as being at risk."
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