(Photo by Wendy McCann)
WESTFIELD – Residents of two Hampden Village mobile homes were displaced from their homes because of extensive damage caused Tuesday evening when intense thunderstorms toppled trees that fell onto the mobile homes.
Building Superintendent Jon Flagg said he had no option other than to condemn two structures and to declare two others as dangerous because of the extent of damage to those structures.
(Photo by Wendy McCann)
The storm lashed the area with high winds and heavy rain shortly after 7 p.m. Tuesday. One Hampden Village resident reported what appeared to be a microburst, but that has not been confirmed by the National Weather Service as yet.
Flagg said that two trees fell on two abutting mobile homes on Second Street. A yellow pine was uprooted and a white pine appeared to have twisted off several feet up the massive trunk, giving further evidence of the suspected microburst.
(Photo by Wendy McCann)
“One structure is totally blown,” Flagg said. “The support structure of the home is twisted and the floor pushed down eight to twelve inches. The rear of the second home was crushed when the trees landed on it. Those homes are no longer livable.”
“It’s unsafe for people to go into those homes until the trees are removed, but they will have to be removed because there is no way to bring them back,” Flagg said.
“I listed two other homes as being dangerous, one home across the Second Street from the two condemned homes and another one on First Avenue because of tree damage,” Flagg said. “Those two appear to be salvageable but there could be damage that we can’t see until they open the walls, broken electrical lines that cause a fire when the power is reactivated.”
Flagg said fifth mobile home was damaged by “a glancing blow” from a falling limb.
(Photo by Wendy McCann)
Flagg said he had prohibited residents from entering the two condemned mobile homes, but that he had to enter those structures to assess the damage. Flagg was asked to recover medication needed by one of the displaced residents.
The Fire Department received a call at 7:37 p.m. Tuesday and dispatched firefighters manning Engine 3, an ambulance and rescue truck under the command of Deputy Fire Chief Mark Divine.
Deputy Chief Andy Hart reported Wednesday that firefighters had assisted the resident of the home crushed by the yellow pine out of the damaged structure.
(Photo by Wendy McCann)
Hampden Village owner Jeff Glaze said that when the park was opened more than 50 years ago the trees were much smaller and that as they have grown have compromised underground utilities and encroached on the mobile homes and the trunk girth has expanded.
Glaze said there is currently a program to remove many of the trees, especially the pine trees and any tree too close to the mobile homes.
Glaze said that the residents of the two condemned homes are waiting for insurance adjusters to document the damage before the fallen tress are removed and residents can gain access to recover property. The two mobile homes will be removed and new homes placed on those two sites.
