Falling Tree Branch Narrowly Misses Davis Family At Chestnut Park

DAVIS (CBS13) — A Davis family says they could have died after a tree branch fell where they were sitting in a park just seconds before.

The couple, their son, and two other kids sat under a Chinese pistache tree in Chestnut Park last week. That's where a branch about half a foot in diameter fell.

They got out of the way before the limb hit the ground.

City arborist Rob Cain says during hot weather, tree limbs fill up with water and sometimes break.

"The limb that fell didn't have defects that we could see in investigating and evaluating the limb, so it wasn't something that a normal inspection would've caught anyway," said Cain.

Cain says this close call is unpredictable, and pruning can help.

The city prunes trees at parks every seven years. Chestnut Park's trees were pruned five years ago.