LAGUNA BEACH : Workers Checking Downtown Trees

City workers are examining the stability of trees in downtown Laguna Beach after a towering ficus toppled over without warning near the library last weekend, officials said Tuesday.

A library worker who was in the building Saturday when the 35-foot tree began to tumble about 6 p.m. said he was startled by an earthquake-type rumbling and a woman screaming, “Oh my God,” as the tree slammed down.

“I felt the whole library shaking,” Anh Hoang said. “I was thinking an earthquake, the big one, was coming or something.”

City officials said no one was hurt in the incident. However, Hoang said a van was slightly damaged.

The tree, a ficus nitida, had towered above the rear of the White House restaurant on Park Avenue, between Glenneyre Street and Coast Highway.

Municipal Services Director Terry Brandt said the tree fell because its roots had grown in a confined area and in an unstable pattern. Similar trees are scattered throughout the downtown area and elsewhere in the city, he said, but no others have crashed unexpectedly to the ground.

“We have never experienced anything quite like this,” Brandt said. “We think this is kind of a unique situation. Usually, these are very hardy, strong, durable trees.”

But tree expert Fred Lang, who on Tuesday examined the spot where the tree once shared space with a stop sign, said ficus nitidas, which are indigenous to tropical regions, can become unstable if not trimmed properly.

“When you use it as a street tree (as is the case in Laguna Beach) you are inviting problems,” he said.

Brandt said city workers will be pruning trees in the downtown area over the next month to lessen the possibility that they will become top-heavy.