UPDATE: Boulder-Sized Concrete Chunk Smashes Into Woodside House, Narrowly Missing Resident
WOODSIDE (CBS SF) -- A home in Woodside was hit with a boulder-sized chunk of concrete that came crashing down a hillside Tuesday afternoon.
Fire crews responded to reports of boulders rolling into a house along Durazno Way around 3:11 p.m.
Photos provided by the owner of the home showed a large piece of concrete that crashed through a glass patio door and into a family room, which apparently came from an active demolition project happening above the neighborhood.
Homeowner Dave Fichtner said he had just gotten up from a family room chair when he saw the "surreal" scene of a huge boulder tumbling into his house.
"I was sitting watching TV and I decided to get up and get a drink, and I watched the excavator on the hill outside and it looked like it was at a 45-degree angle, potentially going to tilt and come down the hill," said Fichtner. "So I got my drink and looked and a big boulder came tearing down the hill and went right into the family room right where I had been sitting watching TV. Luckily, it went through a glass door at just the right place so it didn't cause structural damage. But had it been five feet toward the garage it would have caused structural damage and wiped me out."
No one was hurt.
Fichtner said it was frustrating to have alerted authorities about the potential of debris coming from the demolition job and to have had nothing done about it.
"We had asked the county several times to go about putting a barrier up to keep things like that from happening, and it hadn't happened," said Fichtner. "Turns out the county inspector just saw me and he saw the debris up there and is now requiring them to put up an engineered fence to keep additional debris from coming downhill and he's asked us not to be on that side of our house until that fence gets installed and approved."
Fichtner added that the contractor took care of removing the boulder and boarding up his home. The fire department estimated the boulder to weigh about one ton, Fichtner said.
