Timberrrrrrrr!

By Tania Martin
A KALORAMA woman is lucky to be alive after part of a tree fell on her house.
Kelli Riddiford was asleep when the huge gum tree fell on Saturday, 6 January, at 11.40am. She heard a cracking noise and instinctively rolled out of bed.
Part of the tree had split and fallen on the roof of her house in Inverness Rd, just above where she was sleeping.
Ms Riddiford said the beams in the roof of her house probably saved her.
“A builder told me the beams saved me because they stopped the tree falling through the roof,” she said.
Ms Riddiford said her partner Tom was making her breakfast in bed when the tree fell.
“He heard the tree splitting but didn’t think it would fall and when it did he came rushing in to save me,” she said.
“I heard something in my sleep and did a karate roll out of bed.”
Although the tree didn’t fall through the roof, it caused a lot of damage to the house’s decking, the side of the roof and spouting.
The Lilydale State Emergency Service was called to the scene to help clear away the fallen branch.
Ms Riddiford said the SES was a great help clearing away the tree and making sure the house was safe.
Ms Riddiford is now warning people to get their trees checked for rotting.
The couple moved into the house only in September last year and had only thought to clear away some of the bushland in case of bushfires.
“I didn’t think to get the trees checked because I was more worried about bushfires at this time of year,” she said.
But a Shire of Yarra Ranges arborist told Ms Riddiford several other trees were rotting and needed to be removed.
The couple are now waiting for the remainder of the tree to be removed.
“We are just crossing our fingers that more of the tree doesn’t fall,” Ms Riddiford said.