[UPDATE: Power Restored] Tree Smashes Arcata Home, Power Lines Collapse, Surge Starts Fire in Another Home [Plus Photo of Rescued Racoon Kits!]

A man vaults over a tree that fell into a home on Beverly Drive in Sunny Brae this afternoon as a woman hurries after him. [Photos from the Mad River Union who were in large part responsible for this story.]

This home was badly damaged. [Photo From the Mad River Union]

With traffic seated off at Beverly Way and blocked in both directions by Arcata Police Department officers and volunteer patrollers, frustrated residents were unable to get home from work. For a time, pedestrians were blocked even from walking around the downed trees because of the electrical hazard.

One of the raccoon kits. [Photo provided by the Mad River Union]

The tree fall somehow separated two raccoons kits from their mother. Neighbors heard them squealing, and found them in separate locations amid the fallen branches. At first, the two rescuers put them together under the tree as the mother, who looked on from above, began calling for them. “Everyone was screaming,” said one of the baby racoon saviors.

But the area seemed hazardous for the tiny raccoons, with firefighters and neighbors tromping through jumbled branches. At this point, another neighbor donated a t-shirt in which the kits were bundled, and then taken up the hill for safer placement with the mother still watching. “She totally had eyes on us,” said one of the rescuers.

On checking later, the raccoon mother and kits were gone from the area.. “I think she came down and got them,” said a rescue participant.

A tangle of wires snarl above the fallen tree. [Photo from the Mad River Union]

He said that as firefighters arrived at the home with the fire, he saw light smoke coming from the attic. About the same time, he saw PG&E go past, headed up the road to the downed tree.

The home with the fire turned out to have relatively small damage. “The tenant had located the fire and knocked it down with an extinguisher,” Campbell told us. Firefighters were able to finish putting it out. Campbell estimates there is about $1000 to $2000 worth of damage in that home. “PG&E power lines surging were the most likely culprit,” he told us.

However, he said, “No one was injured that we know of. The occupant of the house is out of town.”

Crews work to remove the downed tree. [Photo from the Mad River Union]

Crews work to restore lines as night falls. [Photo from the Mad River Union]

Multiple people walked near downed power lines much to Asst. Fire Chief Sean Campbell’s chagrin. However, eventually pedestrians were officially allowed to pass. [Photo from the Mad River Union]

UPDATE: Power Restored