South San Francisco, CA December 31, 2014
The heavy winds did a lot of damage in South San Francisco in the past 48 hours. Emergency crews worked non-stop as trees toppled along with power lines and fires on the PGE poles.
Just within 4 hours last night we had five reports of power lines arcing, on fire, or down. Another six calls were made for down trees. In addition a fire requiring full response was reported at 3637 Bassett Court. Neighboring cities also felt similar impact.
Two great resources we encourage neighbors to keep handy include www.FireDispatch.com and PGE outage map. The Firedispatch website gives a brief description to 911 calls made for Fire service which can include medical, public assist, odor investigation, vehicle accidents, downed trees and power lines, hazard materials, and of course fires. Pull down the LOG menu and click South City Fire. The outage map locates areas that have power outage and gives an estimated time of repair.
Below we are sharing many of the photos sent to us by neighbors of damage done. With the long time drought and recent flooding our tree roots were becoming compromised and with the high winds we lost some very old tress. Thank you all who shared.
The Rocca fallen tree as seen during daylite
Photo: Angela De Benedetto
This tree on Rocca fell due to high winds. ‘The root base is about 20 feet wide’ Angela De Benedetto says
Hanging on there in San Bruno as these high winds do their damage through out the area.
Photo: Ana Ramos
A favorite family tree was taken out in the strong winds today. Leticia Ortiz Ramirez said “My family and I loved that tree and we were waiting to see it bloom”
Photo: Leticia Ortiz Ramirez
Kathy Altizio Tetreault lost a fence in the fierce winds
High winds caused this tree to fall on top of a car between Magnolia and Four Lane in SSF
Photo: Olga Ortega
Kayla Gallagher shares this photo of a downed tree on Paradise Valley Rec Ctr Basketball courts
Peepers Arce shared this photo of a tree down at Paradise Valley Park
Kim Harrison shares a photo of the tree down at Martin School.
The root base is pretty big on the tree that fell at Marin School as shown by the photo by Kim Harrison
Trees were reported down at the following location within a 4 hour period on December 30th.
218 CUESTA DR ,SSF
1200 MILLER AV ,SSF
HICKEY BLVD/JUNIPERO SERRA BLVD ,SSF
81 OAK AV ,SSF
400 HEMLOCK AV ,SSF
512 ROCCA AV ,SSF
Electrical Reports of power lines down, arching, fire locations within a 4 hour period on December 30th.
542 GRAND AV ,SSF
120 RANDOLPH AV ,SSF
N CANAL ST/S SPRUCE AV ,SSF
168 Beacon
116 CLAREMONT AV ,SSF
There are many dangerous trees on the Vacant Land, located at Larch Ave, SSF (owners SVP). Their branches have been falling and destroying a storage house on Highland Ave SSF. (before March 2020).
They are tall, large, heavy, overgrown, diseased and have many broken branches. They are leaning to one side and appear at risk of falling toward 3 houses (71, 73 & 75 Highland Ave SSF).
If these trees fall due to strong wind from the San Bruno Mountain, they could easily kill someone (residents or passersby) and damage many houses. Therefore, this needs urgent attention before it is too late.
Tree falling and wild fire are as urgent and dangerous as COVID-19 infection
Hi Dr. Qua
Thank you for sharing this concern, we have forwarded this info to SSF Deputy Director of Parks and Recreation, Greg Mediati for review. Should you wish to follow up, you can reach him at this email addy: Greg.Mediati@ssf.net
Stay well!
-Kamala Silva Wolfe, ESC
Founder/ Editor