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12 killed by falling tree in Madeira


Paul Barton
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  • 1 month later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Spotted several Plane trees that were  lapsed pollards,  a large amount were hollow, heavy leaning with long extended regrowth leaders and in my opinion dangerous. 

 

I also wandered about the stunning Monte Palace botanical gardens and spotted some 'sketchy looking'  dead trees and deadwood. Nothing prepared me for the oak I spotted though!  Right next to a path and a school playground and above and behind other public walkways. It's the tree pictured below. Approx 65' tall with quite  a widespread canopy.

 

That main union was in my opinion included at some point and should have been dealt with some years ago by means of reduction and bracing or complete removal. The union failure looks like it happened some time ago but was not spotted by the staff.

 

I emailed them the video and rang them several times in a bid to get the area cordoned off as I suspect 200 people plus walk beneath this tree daily. I even spoke to a tree surgery firm from mainland Portugal that were working on the island and showed them the video,  they were shocked.

After I returned to 'Blighty' I chased them up on the phone again and offered to fly out (at their expense) and dismantle said tree as they said they couldn't get anybody to deal with it till November time at the earliest.  I finally had an email yesterday stating the tree had been removed. I guess me badgering them may have paid off. Either way I'm glad it was made safe. 

 

20170916_133646.mp4

Edited by wicklamulla
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Cheers Paul,   

 

It was playing on me mind when I was over there on holidays so I kept in contact with them.  If I cudda borrowed some kit over there I would have made it safe FOC, and they could've finished it off at some other time.  They appear quite lax compared to the UK when it comes to Health and Safety. They were a bit slow on the uptake but at least they are doing something after the original accident that killed 12 and injured several more in August.

 

Wouldn't mind doing some work over there as the climate is nice this time of year, not to mention the fantastic food and wine...

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