Fallen Tree Misses Belfast House

Weekend high winds all but put paid to a family home in south Belfast.

Late on Saturday night, a tree crashed onto the back of a householder’s parked car, damaging the roof and the rear window.

However, the family had a lucky escape after the strong winds felled a 150-year-old ash tree in their garden.

Terry Sloan's car was sitting outside his Old Coach Road home in the Upper Malone area when near disaster struck.

He said the felled trunk hit a Monkey Puzzle tree as it fell and then destroyed flowerbeds at the front of the house, before splitting into a ‘Y shape’ and narrowly missing the house before landing on the car.

"It happened at about 9.30pm on Saturday evening. We were all sitting watching TV when suddenly there was a great crack," he said.

"An old tree crashed down right over the garden towards three parked cars," he told the BBC yesterday.

Mr Sloan is now left wondering whose insurance will be left responsible for the considerable weekend damage but acknowledges that it was lucky that no-one was injured when the tree fell.

In January this year, a fallen tree hit a car in Co Down – just outside Downpatrick - and killed the lady driver as high winds ripped across the eastern part of Northern Ireland in a similar storm.

See: Storm Kills Downpatrick Company Director

(BMcC/KMcA)