There were no reports of injuries, the chief said. At the time of the incident, around 4:55 p.m., the house was occupied when a large branch entered a second-story bedroom, but the occupants were on the first floor, he said.
The section of the tree that fell had been damaged by a lightning strike last September, the chief said.
Firefighters arrived at 4:58 p.m. and used ladders to reach the barn-style roof, where they cut and removed branches and covered the hole with a tarp and a plywood patch to prevent water damage, according to Mr. Schapelhouman.
Over the weekend, a tree service cleaned up the upper section of what remains of the tree.
During the incident, the fire district used a drone to provide photos and live streaming video, allowing firefighters to inspect damage to the roof, oversee steps taken to secure it and check the status of the damaged tree, the chief said.
"We continue to develop new use cases for our Drone fleet and increase our number of actual practical operations," he said in a statement. "In the past, there would have not been a safe and convenient way to have accessed and inspected this large (tree) to better understand that it actually presented a threat to public safety below."
After the lightning strike, the homeowners had a tree service look at the tree and trim it if necessary, the chief said. Crews from Pacific Gas & Electric Company also examined the tree at the time, looking for risks to the adjacent power line infrastructure, but found no threats.
This story contains 330 words.
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