A teaching assistant from Cazenove says his life was saved by half term, after a 60-foot-tree came crashing down outside his front door in Monday’s storm.
Gurpal Singh, of Laindon House, works at the Millfields Community School. He said he was lucky it was half term or he could have been hit by the tree which also caused a chimney to fall at 6:50am.
Mr Singh said: “I normally leave the flat at exactly that time for work but half term started [on Monday]. Looking at the damage on the fence I could have been crushed.”
“The flat shook and I ran to my daughter’s room; it was really scary. I can’t believe nobody was hurt,” he said, describing the moment when the chimney, followed by the front end of the tree, smashed into the garden of his ground floor flat.
Mr Singh, who lives with his wife and children, added that his two young children would often run after him as he left for work. Looking at his two year-old-son, he said: “He would have stood no chance.”
Residents of the Stamford Hill Estate were told to vacate the premises and offered temporary shelter in a local hostel while safety inspections were carried out.
Mr Singh turned down the offer and went instead to his father-in-law’s house in nearby Springfield.
“I just went down there and had a cup of tea, I needed one after all that.”
