A Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) spokeswoman said it was notified the large oak had come down on a Centennial Ave home about 7.50am — the occupants were safe and uninjured.
Fenz Otago Lakes group assistant commander Nic McQuillan estimated the tree was up to 15m long.
‘‘There were two main trunks that had impacted the house, and they probably weigh upwards of 10 tonnes each.’’
He said it was a ‘‘lucky, unlucky’’ situation.
‘‘I think they [the occupants] were unfortunate in that a tree fell on the house, but luckily no-one was hurt — [it was] a good outcome, really, from a people-welfare perspective.’’
A Queenstown Lakes District Council spokesman said council staff were liaising closely with the property owners through their property management company.
‘‘We understand the tenants have been provided with alternative, temporary accommodation.
‘‘The fallen tree was on council-managed road reserve and fell on to private property.
‘‘We will continue to work with the property owner and their insurer around next steps and how they progress the removal of the tree.’’
He said the QLDC had a cyclical tree maintenance programme across the district for all council-owned and maintained trees, and it was investigating why this particular tree failed.
‘‘To date we haven’t seen any evidence of further risk in Arrowtown or elsewhere in the district.’’
Arrowtown resident Alex Holden, who is also a volunteer firefighter in the village and attended yesterday morning’s callout, said it was not the first of the old oak trees lining the popular road to fall down.
‘‘The Arrowtown fire brigade has responded to other trees down there ... within the last five years, I’ve definitely been to two other ones ... on that street.’’
Mr Holden said there was a ‘‘wee bit of wind’’ in Arrowtown yesterday morning, ‘‘but nothing that we haven’t had before’’.
He said it was possibly an ‘‘act of nature’’. However, the tree was ‘‘clearly rotten’’, he said.
The property owner was on the way to see the damage first-hand yesterday afternoon and declined to comment until they had further information, including who was responsible for the tree.
