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30-foot tree falls into street, injures one
tree pic1
A 30-foot tall Hackenberry tree covers part of Lyons Avenue next to Sacred Heart Catholic Church after suddenly falling on Wednesday afternoon. - photo by KRISTINA HACKER / The Journal

One man was injured when a 30-foot-tall Hackenberry tree at Denair Park suddenly fell over on Wednesday afternoon.

“The tree said ‘snap, crackle, pop’ and just fell over on a gentleman,” said Dawn Ross, who was in the park when the tree fell.  “I was just wondering what the noise was — it was right in front of me.”

According to Ross, a man was sitting on his bicycle on Lyons Avenue — one of the streets that line Denair Park — when the tree fell over.

The Turlock Police Department received a 911 call about a man being trapped under a tree at 4:22 p.m., said Lieutenant Nino Amirfar. When officers arrived, they found the 49-year-old man next to the tree not trapped under it. The man had non-life threatening injuries and was transported by ambulance to an area hospital, said Amirfar.

The large tree fell onto Lyons Avenue — next to Sacred Heart Catholic Church — and into the yard of a nearby house. The house was not hit by the tree, but a nearby parked van received minor damage, said Amirfar.

City crews were working through the afternoon to cut and remove the 30-foot tree.

“There was no way we could have anticipated that happening,” said Turlock parks, recreation and public facilities manager Allison Van Guilder. “Periodically limbs will fall, but nothing to this extent.”

Van Guilder said the tree was one of the older ones in park and the only Hackenberry at Denair Park.