Giant Tree Hits Home in Storm

For years, the towering eucalyptus trees in this hillside community have swayed--sometimes frighteningly--during strong winds and fierce rainstorms.

For just as long, residents of Saltillo Street have feared the prospect of the huge trees toppling onto their roofs.

Some have tried in vain to figure out who is responsible for the trees’ upkeep, they say.

But neither the city--which ordinarily controls walkways adjacent to public roads--nor the adjoining Woodland Hills Country Club has claimed the 12-tree grove.

“Absolutely no action has been taken,” said Frank Perera, 41, an electronics engineer who just recently moved back into his two-story home, which was damaged in the Northridge earthquake.

The residents’ fears came true Monday when an 80-foot giant finally snapped during the steady downpour that caused havoc throughout the region.

“At first I thought it was a huge thunderclap,” said Dave Frees, 82, whose second-story bedroom was cut in two by the plummeting trunk.

The retired businessman, who was in the bathroom at about 10 a.m., had just begun his morning routine. His wife, Helen Frees, 80, was downstairs in the living room.

“I ran out, took a look . . . and the glass was lying on the bed where my head would have been,” said Dave Frees.

Saltillo is a narrow, winding road that runs along the southwest edge of the country club. The secluded neighborhood, though just a couple minutes from Ventura Boulevard, resembles a rural community.

Since 1986, Perera says, he has lobbied city officials to prune the trees that stand between the neighborhood and the country club. The officials have written back after each of his four letters saying the city is not responsible for the trees.

One letter from Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski is dated Oct. 27, 1997. It says in part that the trees are “on private property belonging to the Woodland Hills Country Club. Therefore, the city has no jurisdiction to trim the trees nor the authority to request the property owners to maintain them.”

Perera says the entire line of trees at one point was behind a fence, on the country club side. A few years ago however, he said, the fence was moved, leaving all but three of the trees outside the boundary.

Miscikowski said Monday that city maintenance workers had, indeed, determined the trees were on the country club’s property.

“We don’t have the authority to cite,” she said. “But we did bring it to their attention.”

A spokesperson for the country club could not be reached for comment.

Meanwhile, crews from the Department of Water and Power and the city Fire Department arrived quickly after the tree fell. They warned residents to stay back from live electric wires knocked down by the tree.

“Everybody was so nice,” said Helen Frees of the response crews.

The Freeses stood by as contractors and insurance representatives assessed the damage.

“All I know is my insurance company is taking care of it,” said Dave Frees.

Perera, who dished out $350,000 to repair his own home after the quake, feared what another fallen tree could do to the house he designed himself.

“We went through hell with the earthquake,” which couldn’t have been prevented, he said, but damage from falling trees “is preventable.”