Tree topples onto Costa Mesa apartments: ‘The whole building rocked’
A tree fell on a Costa Mesa apartment building Monday morning, prompting authorities to evacuate residents.
Authorities evacuated portions of a Costa Mesa apartment complex Monday morning after a large tree crashed through the roof of a building there during strong winds and smashed into a balcony, according to fire officials.
The roughly 65-foot-tall pine tree toppled onto the side of a two-story, eight-unit building in the Pinecreek Village apartments at 1300 Adams Ave. around 10:30 a.m., authorities said.
No one was injured. At least eight residents of the 380-unit complex were displaced as of Tuesday.
Authorities said the person who lives in the apartment where the tree landed managed to escape.
“I was in my bedroom and, boom, all of a sudden the whole building rocked,” Dea Scott, who has lived at the complex for 17 years, said Monday. Her three cats hid under the bed during the commotion, she said.
Soon after the tree fell, 32 apartments nearby were evacuated. On Tuesday, four of the eight units in the damaged building were still red-tagged as uninhabitable, said city senior building inspector Ed Cooke.
Wiring leading to one building was ripped out of the ground by roots that were pulled up when the tree toppled, authorities said.
Neighbors said Monday that wind was whipping through the complex at the time.
“We’ve been getting … some incredible wind bursts,” said Bill Friedman, who has lived at the complex since 1977.
At about 11:15 a.m., winds were blowing at about 18 mph in Costa Mesa, with gusts up to 24 mph, according to the National Weather Service.
Staff writer Bradley Zint contributed to this report.