'It's a blame game,' Westminster family struggles to get tree that fell on their house, car removed
WESTMINSTER -- A Westminster family was displaced after a fallen tree damaged their car and home. Huge chunks of the tree remained suspended on cable lines. It's now a week later, but the family still can't get anyone to clean it up.
"I called anybody and everybody," said homeowner Stephen Harvey, "We started with the insurance companies Tuesday night when we were finally able to get service."
The tree fell across Route 12. Harvey was inside with his young child and pregnant wife. They remember hearing the tree crack, and the next scary moments.
"I got up, grabbed [my wife], ran to the middle of the house, told her to get down, and then just boom," recounted Harvey, "First looked out of the window, but we couldn't see anything with the branches and everything. We came out, noticed lines across the ground, noticed the tree across the street, and called 911."
Harvey said the Massachusetts Department of Transportation cleared the trunk from the middle of the road but left huge pieces of the tree suspended on cable lines above his car.
He said the tree service from the power company wouldn't touch it because of the cable lines.
The cable companies told him it was a tree issue, and the town's Department of Public Works told him it was not their problem because it's a state road.
The family spent a week in a hotel because of the incident and returned home to still find the tree trunks on the cable lines.
"It's a blame game no one wants to be responsible for damaging something else," said Harvey.
WBZ-TV reached out to Verizon and MassDOT. After our calls, MassDOT came by to clear the tree from in front of their car. Verizon came a short time later to remove the rest of the tree.
"Any progress is good progress at this point," said Harvey.