Tree hits house after being brought down in high winds

A 30ft tree was brought down in high winds, hitting a house and causing chaos on a busy road.

People living in the road spoke of their shock after seeing the tree resting against a property in Brockmoor, Brierley Hill.

It smashed through telephone cables to two homes before hitting the roof of the semi-detached house yesterday.

Fire crews and police were called to Pensnett Road shortly after 1.30pm after a neighbour raised the alarm.

No-one was inside the house at the time the tree collapsed after checks were made by firefighters from Brierley Hill station.

Huge roots were exposed as the tree was brought down, also hitting a front garden wall and blocking the pavement.

Residents said it was lucky that the tree fell away from the path of busy traffic going along Pensnett Road at the time.

Firefighters got inside the property to check it to ensure there was no-one inside and that it was structurally safe.

Resident Liz Middleton, aged 38, said she only knew the tree had fallen after seeing a neighbour rushing towards the house.

"It was a complete shock. It had been windy at the time," said Mrs Middleton.

"I saw my neighbour running up the drive, so I ran outside and saw the tree had fallen.

"My main concern was to check there was no-one hurt and no-one was inside the house.

"Thankfully there was no-one inside. Also it hadn't caused too much damage.

"I wouldn't want to think about what could have happened if it had fallen in the road because we live on quite a busy road.

"Also if someone had been walking along the pavement at the time. It was so lucky."

Police helped manage traffic in the road while engineers were called by Dudley Council arrived to deal with the fallen tree.

It was cut into pieces and removed from resting on the house within around three hours of the tree surgeons arriving.

Engineers from BT were also on the scene making repairs to the two damaged phone lines.