Another Oak Falls, Damaging Vehicle, Garage

One week after a giant oak tree toppled on a group of picnickers in downtown Ojai, another one collapsed Sunday at a home in this oak-laden community, damaging the owner’s sport utility vehicle and a neighbor’s garage.

No one was injured in the incident, which occurred about noon in the 200 block of Encinal Avenue, but a neighbor who was in her garage at the time fainted.

“I heard this loud cracking noise, and the ground was shaking, and then it suddenly hit my roof,” said Christina Orthuber, who was looking for a screwdriver in a toolbox at the time the tree fell. “It was just so scary, and I started screaming and crying.”

The tree damaged the roof of the garage and knocked a rain gutter off one side of the structure, Orthuber said. The tree still lay where it landed Sunday evening.

“I’m not going to move it,” said Orthuber, 58. “It’s the neighbors’ tree.”

Graphic artist Dianna Bennett-Engle, who owns the oak, said she had been gardening under the 50-foot tree minutes before it collapsed, and had gone indoors to make a phone call.

“Then the electricity went out, and the building shook,” she said.

She said the oak looked healthy before it collapsed, but with it uprooted, she could see that the tree suffered from dry rot.

Bennett-Engle, who bought the home with her husband, Chris, in December, speculated that the tree collapsed from years of watering the lawn beneath it.

The oak, estimated at between 60 and 100 years old, fell across the rear of her Mitsubishi Montero.

“I don’t know how much damage it has,” said Bennett-Engle, 46. “I’m just waiting for the insurance guy to get here.”

The two recent accidents follow a debate in nearby Ojai about whether to cut down dying oaks in Libbey Park. A decision to remove three century-old trees there sparked protests by activists who claimed that the trees’ health prospects had not been adequately assessed.

Four people were arrested during demonstrations, including activist John Christianson, who climbed a tree and perched in it for 15 hours, refusing to come down. The charges against Christianson were dropped last month.

“I love trees; I don’t want to see them cut down,” Bennett--Engle said. “But if they’re going to injure me, my husband or anybody else, then they’ve got to go.”