LIVONIA, Mich. – A 2-year-old boy was killed and his mother was hospitalized Wednesday after a tree fell through the roof of their Livonia home during a tornado.
The incident occurred on Wednesday, June 5 at 3:37 p.m. on Houghton Street. Multiple trees were down in the area, including the massive hardwood tree that had been uprooted and crashed into the family’s house.
The tree fell through the roof and onto a bed where the mother and her 2-year-old baby were lying, pinning them.
“All available units in the city were dispatched to the scene, and a special call for Western Wayne County Search and Rescue Team was made,” said Livonia Fire Department Chief Robert Johnson. “Crews worked tirelessly for over an hour removing parts of the tree and lifting the tree with high-pressured airbags to extricate the victims.”
Johnson said the mother was transported to a Metro Detroit hospital, where she is listed in critical condition.
The 2-year-old boy had succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead on the scene.
There was a 2-week-old in a crib in a separate room along with the grandmother, who was not injured but transported to St. Mary’s hospital for an evaluation.
Johnson said the mother remained conscious throughout most of the extrication. He said she was being treated by paramedics while being pinned by the tree.
“Once we were able to move the tree, which was a massive four-trunk hardwood tree that uprooted right next to the bedroom, so the entire mass of the tree came down through the bedroom that they were staying in,” Johnson said.
Johnson said parts of the roof had to be removed to get to the tree and the victims.
He said the process took an hour, as they used about a dozen chainsaws and over 25 firefighters to cut the tree into pieces until they could remove enough of the weight to remove enough of the trunks to remove it from the bed.