Tree Traps Man

VISALIA, Calif. -- John Mann was quietly working a crossword puzzle in his Visalia home at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, when suddenly he heard a crash and then found himself pinned between his chair and the rafters of his roof.

An estimated 75-foot-tall oak tree had just fallen across his kitchen, living room and the driveway out front. Mann, 73, waited for the falling noises to stop, and then wiggled himself out of his chair, went out the back door and climbed over a fence and the trunk of the fallen tree.

"I thought it was never going to stop falling," Mann said, explaining what it felt like to be trapped in his chair. "The trunk of the tree missed me by 2 1/2, 3 feet."

Simultaneously, Chris Facio, 49, and his girlfriend, Yolanda Campos, 46, had just arrived from Fresno in Facio's 1992 Ford Explorer to visit Campos' nephew Isaac Campos, 22. Isaac Campos lives next door to Mann in the 1900 block of East Vassar Drive near Walnut Avenue.

Facio said within 20 seconds of getting out of the car he heard someone yell: "The tree's falling." Next thing he knew, he and his girlfriend had been knocked to the ground by the top tree branches. The car had been crushed beyond repair.

They were both treated and released from Kaweah Delta Hospital for scrapes and cuts.

Facio said they are both OK, but a little shook up by the experience.

Isaac Campos was working at Kaweah Delta when it happened and learned about it when his girlfriend called him.

He said she had been parked where his aunt parked, but he had called her only five minutes before to bring him something from the house.

While his home wasn't crushed, he wasn't able to get inside until later in the afternoon because of a large branch that had covered his front door.

The duplex that Mann and Isaac Campos live in is rented by Kaweah Rental Agency, but no one from the agency was available for comment over the holiday weekend.

Visalia Fire Battalion Chief Charlie Norman looked in amazement at the large tree as it covered the house and the majority of the duplex parking lot.

"This is well beyond the scope of firefighter chainsaws," he said.

Jack Benigno's Tree Service was called in and spent about four hours cutting away the tree.

Owner Jack Benigno said the tree fell because of an oak root fungus, a disease that he and other tree-service providers can test for.

However, the outward signs of the fungus are not obvious.

"The tree was green-leafed and no one would have thought this could have happened," he said.

Benigno said testing for the fungus can cost from $500 to $1,000, a price few people are willing to pay.

Because the trees are protected by the city of Visalia, he said if a tree tests positive for the fungus, the city's arborist must then re-test the tree and can recommend that it be cut down. The fungus can cause a tree to fall without any warning.

By late afternoon. Mann was able to re-enter his home for a few minutes to find some medication, and the firefighters, using an extrication tool, took the top off of Facio's car to remove items inside. While the tree did not fall on Mann's car, some of the carport roof did. He said he had a friend who would pick him up, and he expected to stay in a motel until he could find a place to stay. Facio said he had family members who would be able to drive him around.

Both Facio and Mann said they felt lucky they didn't suffer worse injuries.

The last oak tree to fall on a house was at 9 p.m., April 24, when the tree fell on a two-story house at 1413 N. Burke St.

However, that house was not occupied at the time because the Visalia Rescue Mission was waiting for approval from the city to use it as a shelter for women and children.