FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The roof of Pete Pepper’s Fort Lauderdale home has obvious damage after part of a large tree came crashing down on Monday afternoon.
“It sounded like a bomb was going off,” Pepper said. “At first I thought it might’ve just been thunder or a transformer blew, but when I come outside my back door to check on the transformer over here, that’s when I saw everything coming down, so it was a bit of a shock.”
The tree actually came from a neighbor’s property, where the owners have been assessing their own damage.
They told Local 10 News’ Terrell Forney that termites are the root cause, with the insects weakening the base of the tree which likely contributed to the fall.
The owners just moved into the property less than a year ago and they’re now dealing with a potentially costly fix.
Sky 10 was over the scene at Northwest 13th Street and 9th Avenue after the call came in on Monday.
Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue responded to the tree down call and eventually determined that no one was injured.
Landscapers arrived later in the afternoon to begin the heavy lifting of carving away chunks of the tree, allowing both property owners a chance to figure just how bad things are underneath it all.
“Trying to figure out how am I going to get this all fixed,” said Pepper.