Crime & Safety

100-Foot Pine Tree Uproots, Breaks Gas Line

A more than 50-year-old pine tree uprooted in La Crescenta, breaking the gas line, blocking the road and prompted a temporary evacuation for residents nearby.

High wind gusts slammed a gigantic pine tree down in La Crescenta on Thursday, breaking the gas line underneath it. 

Residents near the 3300 block of Burritt Way and New York Avenue heard the tree fall and could smell the gas, according to locals at the location. No one was injured.

"The gas line broke," neighbor Kathy Yukl told Patch. "The smell was quite pronounced but [GWP] said it wasn't in danger of exploding unless someone lit a fire." 

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Yukl lives next door to Marian Westerholm - whose pine tree fell down - in homes that were built around 1949. 

The tree was there when Westerholm purchased the house about 50 years ago in the 1960s, she said. 

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"I'm very sorry to see something so big and beautiful go," Marian Westerholm, whose tree fell, told Patch.

Westerholm wasn't surprised to see the tree go down, she said. 

"About two months ago I called the city tree department and asked them to send someone out and take a look at it because it's been on a slant and it was getting more and more slanted," Westerholm said.

The reaction Westerholm had from a city tree official was not what she expected.

"A fellow took a look at the tree and he wanted to know how long I had been here, how long the tree had been here," Westerholm said. "He took a look at it and told me 'It's not going to go.'"  

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Works, GWP, Glendale Police Department, Glendale Fire Department and various news organizations were at the location. 

Local kids, including Westerholm's grandchildren, were climbing the tree and posing for photos. 

"I feel sadness," Yukl said. "When a magnificent tree comes down, it's sad."


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