Lucky escape as tree topples on OAP flats

Tree blown over at Grange Court.

HIGH winds caused this 65ft high tree to topple on a block of retirement flats in Oldham yesterday lunch-time.

Luckily no-one was injured and there was little damage to the flats in Grange Court.

Greater Manchester Fire Service sent two technical response units and two major rescue units to the scene.

Firefighters stayed at the scene for more than an hour until the property was deemed safe and secure — none of the elderly residents needed to be rehoused.

The gales were the tail end of Storm Barney, the brunt of which battered Greater Manchester on Tuesday night, leaving a trail of destruction behind it.

Residents were evacuated from a partially-collapsed block of flats in Leigh, near Wigan, and fire crews were also called to incidents in Ince, Heywood, Hulme and Sale.

Meanwhile, weather forecasters are saying that severe gales and heavy rain threaten to ravage Britain until the end of the month with some warning of storms in the run up to Christmas.

And all that will come after this weekend’s “polar plunge” which will send thermometers plummeting from tomorrow. By the weekend most of the country will be shivering in temperatures around freezing with showers turning to snow on high ground and sleet in towns and cities.