The tree that killed a young woman when it fell on her in Adelaide’s parklands on Wednesday afternoon could have weighed as much as 10 tonnes, one of the first responders has said.
In what has been described as a “shocking accident”, the victim is believed to have been sitting under the gum when a huge portion of its trunk snapped off, near War Memorial Drive in North Adelaide.
Emergency services were called to the site about 2:30pm.
“Sadly the 22-year-old Adelaide woman died at the scene,” police said in a statement.
Police are currently investigating the incident and will prepare a report for the coroner.
Metropolitan Fire Service commander Declan Dwyer was among the first responders and said it was a “confronting” scene.
“Everyone was really keen to try and help, and try and do what they [could] to save this poor girl, but unfortunately to no avail,” he told ABC Radio Adelaide.
“It was very confronting for emergency crews and also the first people who were there.”
Mr Dwyer estimated the tree was between 20 and 25 metres in height, and “maybe a couple of metres around”.
“Whilst we were doing our rescue calculations, we sort of estimated it to be around about 8 to 10 tonnes,” he said.
“It was a large tree that had split, obviously when it was very young, and the trunk of it was divided into a quarter and three-quarters coming out of the ground.
“The three-quarter section – it appeared like it snapped off at the base and fell, away from the remaining section of tree.”
The section left standing presented a threat to emergency crews, who were forced to stay clear because “the risk of the remaining section of the tree falling was quite great”, Mr Dwyer said.
Arborists attended the scene on Wednesday to remove that part of the tree, Mr Dwyer said.
He said the tree had recently been inspected by the Adelaide City Council, which is now investigating.
Adelaide Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith said the incident appears to have been a “shocking accident”.
“I express my sincere condolences to the family and friends of the young woman tragically killed,” she said on Wednesday.
“Unfortunately, I can provide no further information at this time as the circumstances which led to this tragic event will be the subject of an official investigation.”
Local arborist Marcus Lodge said while it was common practice for authorities to undertake inspections, cracks in a tree were not always obvious.
“There is, allegedly, supposedly, a link between cool weather becoming hot or hot weather becoming cool, and that causing a variation in temperature across a branch that may lead it to [a] fail,” he said.
“The difficulty is that after a storm event, the tree may have partially failed but not actually fallen, and it’s in the next little period after that you may find you have an increased likelihood of small-to-medium-diameter branch failures.
“You minimise the risk by undertaking inspections.
“I think we have got the mix about right — most councils have their tree inventories assessed on a regular basis.”
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