Crime & Safety

UPDATE: Crane Lands on Royal Oak Garage

Neighbors say a maple tree was being removed when the incident happened.

Update, 9:00 p.m.: Crowds gathered at Marks Park with cameras and video recorders were told not to expect a resolution to a jack-knifed vehicle between two Royal Oak houses until later tonight.

Mayor Jim Ellison was among the onlookers. Ellison said the Royal Oak Fire Department wants Consumers Energy to turn off gas in the area before crews attempt to lower the vehicle. The mayor reports Consumers expects to be onsite at 11 p.m.

In the meantime, Royal Oak Fire Chief Chuck Thomas is going to bring in some lights, Ellison said.

The DTE outage maps shows 294 customers remain without power. That's down from 979 reported with power earlier in the evening.

6:30 p.m.: A crane belonging to a local tree trimming company fell on the garage of a Royal Oak house on the 1100 block of Second Street Thursday afternoon.

No one was reported hurt in the incident and Royal Oak police and fire are on the scene, securing the area and developing a strategy to lower the vehicle, which is currently jack-knifed in the air.

Homeowner Karen Johns was having a maple tree removed and was watching the company work from her front yard. She said she saw the cab of the truck start to wiggle, and then saw the truck slowly rise in the air.

"I heard a crash and and then I heard the crane operator go, 'Oh, no!" Johns said. 

"Everyone scurried to see if the tree trimmer and crane operator were OK, and when we found out that they were, everyone just got sick that it happened," she said.

Johns said that morning a neighbor assessed her towering maple tree and said, "I hope you have good home owners insurance," before he headed to work.

According to DTE spokesperson Alejandro Bodipo-Memba, the crane hit power lines and knocked out power for 979 DTE customers between 11 Mile and Lincoln roads, from approximately Main Street to Campbell.


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