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Codominant stem broke causing house to burn
This house caught fire and the roof burned off causing $90,000 damage. The cause was a codominant stem with a bark inclusion falling on the house and electrical wire that supplied power to the building. Pruning could have reduced the likelihood of this occurring.
Roof burned off this house (note the black soot around the boarded window) and the home contents were severely water damaged when a stem with a bark inclusion split from a nearby tree. The portion of the tree that remained standing is shown below. |
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The stem broke from this tree and fell on the portion of the house where the power from the electrical pole entered the house. The house caught fire causing severe damage. |
A close-up of the bark inclusion is shown above. Note that there was little wood holding the stem to the rest of the tree. Instead of wood in the branch union there was bark. This makes the union weak. |
