Scroungers needed in Santa Rosa Calif. ASAP!!!!

Should have put a CL out before hiring "profesionals"!! Well at least no one was hurt, and somebody is getting a new house for free!

Bring tarps. The homeowner will need them for the rain they are expecting tonight.

OMG! This is a case where "OMG!" is actually justified. %-P

Yikes! Poor family (/crane company, /tree removal company, /insurers...)
Lucky lawyers...

BTW, isn't "replace my whole house" a bit extreme? (Or not?)
I think it would likely go to court with a rebuild of only that wing of the
house being the judge's call. Subject to expert witness structural
engineer's call on status of foundation in the 'undamaged' wing.

Soooo, why was it so hard to remove the boom? I don't know a thing about these boom trucks, but is this a case of homer simpson stuck at the vending machine because he won't let go of the snack?

I mean, release the log, retract the boom, use another crane set 'er upright and fire the doofus that can't calculate wood weight.

BTW, why do you build a new house next to a 150 year old oak tree?

I would be upset to be the neighbors who have to leave their houses for the night. Two housed to the left have to evacuate????? What is the crane going to right itself and tip over again?

Now we know, pulling a 5 ton stump out of the ground can't be done.

Jags said:

That had to have been one hell of a crane ride.

Click to expand...

Yeah, we'll have to go down to McDonald's where he now works and ask him what happened.

Steve

The situation would be a lot funnier if some doofus was trying to remove the tree on his own!

Danno77 said:

Soooo, why was it so hard to remove the boom? I don't know a thing about these boom trucks, but is this a case of homer simpson stuck at the vending machine because he won't let go of the snack?

I mean, release the log, retract the boom, use another crane set 'er upright and fire the doofus that can't calculate wood weight.

Click to expand...

There are a few things that could have caused that crane to fail. Just too little information. In regards to just retracting the boom, during the collapse a portion of the boom may have been damaged and that means no retraction, but dismantling it piece by piece. Kinda like bending your fully extended radio antennae then trying to retract it. If it could be retracted, then the crane still needs to be upright and stable with the boom off the house to retract. One or more cranes may need to be used to safely perform this task.

My friend had his crane flip on a worker. The boom was fully extended over the front of the cab and somehow the operator accidentally picked up an outrigger just enough to get the momentum started. A wrecked crane and a 2,000 crane rental later he wasn't very happy.

In all seriousness that was a big crane to fail. That thing must have been fully extended with jib and at a weak boom angle.

That was not a cheap crane. The photos & stories were not what I was expecting. I think that is a $500k crane. I wouldn't doubt it would cost $5k for a day for that crane. That was a commercial crane used to put HVAC units on a roof, set large structural beams on 5+ story buildings, etc... In my part of Pennsylvania there might be 3 in a 50 mile radius. Lots of smaller cranes.

Long story short, it is very hard to believe a tree service had a crane that big, although it is California we are talking about. I bet that was a $10,000 tree removal BEFORE the crane fell over.