King News, Komo News and the early Tweet from local EMS are all contradictory on number of injured and if the house was occupied. The Komo News story seems the most detailed and includes interview with the occupants of the house. Komo News reports that the crane operator was able to exit the cab of the crane after the accident unharmed. The homeowner was in house with daughter but neither was injured. Komo news reports only one climber injured in one sentence and two climbers injured in another. I suspect that once the dust clears it may be two fell and one climber was injured and treated at Overlake in Bellevue and another was evaluated at Overlake Medical Center to make sure they were ok. (Edit: i may be wishful thinking and hoping it’s only one injury. I should not be speculating. Lots more articles say two injured. This is the only one that says one injured *and* two injured.)
I will paste the Komo article here:
Komo News: ISSAQUAH, Wash. -- One person was hurt when a large mobile crane used to clear trees toppled backwards Tuesday morning, crashing into the garage of an Issaquah home, authorities said.
First responders said the victims fell about 15 feet from a tree before being rushed for treatment to Overlake Medical Center. Information about the victim's condition was not immediately disclosed.
A worker who was in the crane's cab was able to crawl out after the accident and was not injured. Two people inside the house were not hurt during the incident, which occurred at 11:45 a.m., officials said.
The Washington State Department of Labor & Industries dispatched a crew to the site to as part of an investigation to determine what happened.
Eastside Fire and Rescue Battalion Chief Mark Vetter said it was a freak accident.
"To roll up and see this is not something you normally see," he said, adding that the removal crew likely did not accurately estimate the weight of a tree fragment that was being hoisted up. "The weight hit that crane and pulled it over right through the house."
Trista Oliva, who lives in the home, said the tree in her home's yard developed an 8-foot long crack that may have collected water inside, which may have made it heavier than the removal crew estimated.
"I was on the other side of where the crane is (and) I saw the wood going the wrong way," Oliva said. "I hear my daughter go, 'It's falling!' I was in the middle of a bagel bite and I just jumped out of my desk and ran. And then I heard the crash."
Officials said the crew had been hired to remove trees from the back yard of the property.
The crew decided to cut a large maple tree into pieces and use the crane to lift the discarded tree pieces over the house when the accident occurred.
Oliva said she, her daughter, two cats and a puppy, were inside the residence when the accident occurred. No one inside the house was hurt during the accident, which left a crack in the wall of the home's master bathroom.
"You can't really tell anything happened" inside the house, she said.
