6 Injured as 70-Foot Oak Tree Topples on Picnickers in Park

A 100-year-old oak tree in a city park toppled Thursday on a group of picnickers celebrating the end of school, injuring six people who had to be cut free with chain-saws, police said.

The massive, 70-foot-high tree in century-old Doyle Park downtown, possibly weakened by recent heavy winds and drought conditions, fell without warning amid a group of 100 school picnickers, officers said.

“There was an awful sound and the tree fell right on top of everybody,” Carin Guzman, 21, of Santa Rosa said. “There was no warning other than this kind of creaking sound. The tree looked like a huge umbrella.”

It took rescue workers with chain-saws about half an hour to cut through the limbs and branches of the huge tree to reach the injured and free them, authorities said.

Two of the injured were hospitalized, while the others were treated and released.

The 100 picnickers were from an English as a second language class at Santa Rosa Junior College. They were celebrating the end of the school year, officers said.

Officials speculated that the live tree had been weakened by recent high winds, coupled with a dry winter that could have loosened its relatively shallow roots. Winds were reported as moderate when the tree toppled.