Kelowna News

A tree that fell in West Kelowna on Thursday night threatens an annual haunted house charity event on Rufli Road.

Candie Finlayson says the pine beetle-killed tree fell on Thursday evening around 6:30 p.m., knocking out power lines and sending showers of sparks onto the road near her Rufli Road home. The tree came to rest on the road, blocking access in or out.

While clean up and repair crews moved the tree off to the side of the road, it still blocked an entire lane, says Finlayson.

"There's only five or six (houses) on the street. If it was just us until they cleaned it up, we would have dealt with it fine."

However, a home on Rufli Road is home to an annual Haunted House event, with the proceeds going to charity. Finlayson said about 250 people showed up to the house Friday night, and they expected hundreds more tonight for Halloween.

"You should have seen the cars trying to get around this tree," says Finlayson, adding the dead-end street is poorly lit.

"(I was afraid) someone was going to get hurt," she says, adding one side of the road has a steep embankment and she was afraid the cars would tumble down it into her neighbour's yard across the road.

Finlayson says numerous phone calls to Argo Maintenance, who has the District of West Kelowna's contract for dangerous tree removal, resulted in little action until late Saturday morning. Finlayson says Argo brought equipment to push the tree onto her and her neighbour's property, but didn't clear the tree or numerous branches away. Finlayson says she was told Argo may get around to removing the tree on Monday.

This means much less parking and space to turn around on the road near tonight's Haunted House.

"The Haunted House can't be canceled now, it's been advertised all over the neighbourhood," says Finlayson, adding even if it were canceled, people would still come.

A spokesperson for Argo Maintenance was not immediately available for comment.

Finlayson says the Rufli Road has a number of trees that need removal and instead have been cut down and left in yards, or marked for removal but never taken down.

"We're just tired and frustrated. We're taxpayers, too, and we just want the trees taken away," says Finlayson. "It's a safety issue."