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Two people were able to escape a South Middleton Township home after a tree fell and smashed through the building’s roof, killing a third person Monday morning, according to Tim Yingst, Citizen’s Fire Co. chief.
Neighbors said they believed that those two people were the parents of Scott Quickel, the 43-year-old man who died at around 3 a.m. Monday. It is unknown if they were injured or not.
The tree smashed through the roof of the home, located on the 800 block of Baltimore Pike ( Route 94), and onto a mattress that was still visible from the street Monday afternoon. Yingst said the home was a total loss.
Neighbors said Quickel lived with his parents at home, which was surrounded by many tall, old trees. They said they did not hear the tree fall Monday morning.
One neighbor theorized recent rainfall softened the ground beneath the tree, which allowed it to easily uproot and land on the home.
Quickel died from multiple traumatic injuries, according to Cumberland County Coroner Charley Hall, who ruled his death an accident.
The National Weather Service said the Harrisburg area saw up to 54 mph winds Sunday into early Monday in the wake of a large rainstorm exiting the region.
Christian Fitzpatrick, an arborist and manager of Bartlett Tree Experts’ York Office, advised residents to proactively ask an arborist to look at their property to isolate problem trees that may need to be addressed.
There are several things homeowners can do to help mitigate risks associated with trees, Fitzpatrick said.
After storms, Fitzpatrick recommends property owners step outside and look up at the tree’s branches. If all the branches are pointed in a single direction, but one is pointed awkwardly out of place, then there may be broken or dead branches.
Residents should also look on the ground, Fitzpatrick said. After rainfall followed by heavy wind, the soil beneath a tree becomes soaked and can lead to “tree soil failure” — when the dirt beneath a tree’s roots begins to loosen up and increases the risk of the tree tipping over.
Fitzpatrick said sustained 20- to 30-mile-per-hour winds, with gusts that reach up to 60- to 80 miles-per-hour, can be enough to knock over trees affected by soil failure.
Arborists look at the “flair” transition area where a tree’s trunk meets its roots to and see if the tree has bent or if the truck is not relatively upright.
“The importance of tree inspections gets underestimated. Sometimes we take it for granted — there are inherent risks [to having trees on our properties] maybe we don’t talk about enough.”
Fitzpatrick said it behooves landowners to call professionals certified by the International Society of Arborists to perform site inspections to catch obvious deficiencies and then come up with a plan to mitigate those inherent risks.
Many arborists will conduct those inspections for free, Fitzpatrick said.
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