Residents of Coquitlam’s Burke Mountain neighbourhood are asking the city to inspect local trees after one toppled onto a home this morning.
Janet Li was having breakfast with her baby when a tree shattered her roof. The home, at the corner of Sheffield Avenue and Highland Drive, suffered $100,000 in damage.
This is the second time the Li family has been hit. Two weeks ago, another deciduous fell and destroyed the family’s new truck. Li’s husband called the city and asked inspectors to investigate, but was told nobody was available.
“The truck is a total loss. My husband called the city, he worried that more trees would break again, but the city said too busy right now.”
Burke Mountain is rapidly changing. The area’s population is expected to grow by 15,000 over the next decade. Amongst the new developments are several creeks, which the city has protected with so-called “wildlife corridors”. But area residents say the trees remaining in those corridors appear to be unstable and unsafe.
“With urbanization here they are cutting so many roots, and the trees are really weak, so they’re dying and if they’re dying they’re falling apart,” says area resident Heidi Bader.
Coquitlam City Councillor Craig Hodge says arborists will inspect the area.
“We have experts who will be looking at it. When this (development) was put in, we had contractors look at it, and evaluate it, but the whole idea is to preserve the environment around the creeks and to protect these wildlife corridors and fish habitats.”
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