Weekend wind causes 60 foot tree to fall on Denver home, pierce through ceiling
A homeowner in Denver's Hilltop neighborhood woke up in the middle of the night over the windy weekend to the sound of a tree falling on his house.
"It just made a bang," said John Simonet.
Around midnight, Simonet was dozing off while reading on his living room couch, when he heard the noise.
"I heard this bang and I figure what is that? And I looked up and I saw these branches come through this ceiling," said Simonet.
Just feet above his head early Sunday morning, broken branches had punctured the roof and ceiling. Insulation and Sheetrock rained down.
"As you can see, they are ... wow, ugly and terrible," said Simonet.
Being the good husband that he is, Simonet cleaned up the debris and waited until the morning to wake his wife.
"My wife was already asleep, so this morning I woke her up and said 'We got a little surprise!' And she was shocked," said Simonet on Sunday morning.
Outside, the picture became clear.
"This will blow your mind when you see it," said Simonet, leading the way towards the giant fallen tree in his yard.
A 60-foot-tall tree had fallen onto the home, damaging the new roof Simonet had put on the home just two weeks ago.
The evergreen was so big it flipped a sidewalk, damaged a shed and knocked over an aspen tree.
"The aspen fell between the house and the fence which we were fortunate about," said Simonet.
Planted 70 years ago, the large tree leaves a hole in the home in more ways than one.
"I just felt sad because it's been here all these years, since we've been here over 25 years. It's a nice tree, it provides shade and privacy," said Simonet.
"It was a big event," he said.
On Monday a tree company and the roofers will come out to assess the damage and see what needs to be done. Simonet hopes to plant more trees in the place of the ones that fell.
