Crane falls on Montville, New Jersey home during routine tree-trimming job
By Naveen Dhaliwal
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MONTVILLE, New Jersey (WCBS) — A crane accident in Montville, New Jersey turned a routine tree trimming job into a chaotic mess when the machine fell onto a house.
Crews were originally there to do a routine tree-pruning job, the first time they were on the job at that property.
“The crane was up in the air. It looked like– even my wife made a comment that, oh, that looks a little dangerous,” neighbor Alan Vazzano said.
Seconds after Vazzano saw it, it crashed.
“I heard a scream, and two seconds, I heard a big bang,” neighbor Roger Patel said.
The crane crashed across the entire house, and the truck it was attached to ended up on its side with the driver’s side wheels in the air. Among the damage to the home, it appeared to knock over a chimney.
Home damaged in crane collapse, no injuries reported
Homeowner Ken Rose and his wife weren’t home at the time, but their housekeeper and four dogs were. No one was hurt.
“I was very surprised at the amount of equipment here for a relatively routine work,” Rose said. “There is significant damage. But fortunately, again, nobody was hurt.”
With two tow trucks and 46 years of experience, cleaning up the mess was a big job for Mike Corigliano’s towing company.
“You have to worry about saving the house from collapsing and set up all the proper rigging,” he said.
While he worries about that, the homeowners are worried about the upcoming wet forecast.
“My biggest concern is to make sure the house is protected from the rain,” Rose said.
With Thanksgiving just a week away, Rose and his wife say they still plan to celebrate, but they’ll have to do it somewhere else.
“I don’t know if that’s going to happen. So it is a sad time, at the holidays, but fortunately, we do have friends, and hopefully we’ll be invited somewhere else,” he said.
CBS News New York reached out to the tree company and has not heard back.
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