Ambulance, truck totaled by falling tree in Dorchester

By Todd Feathers, Globe Correspondent

An ambulance and truck were totaled this morning in Dorchester when high winds uprooted a large tree and sent it crashing onto the roofs of the vehicles.

The two EMTs who were in the ambulance, which had stopped for a red light at the intersection of Blue Hill Avenue and Seaver Street, were uninjured. There was nobody in the Toyota Tundra truck, which was parked on the side of the road.

Gusting winds wreaked havoc across much of the state today — some areas reported hurricane force winds of 80 miles per hour — downing trees and power lines and disrupting morning commutes.

Around 5:30 a.m., the private ambulance, owned by Brockton-based McCall Ambulance Service, was on a routine run to pick up a patient for kidney dialysis, said the company’s president, Stephen McCall.

When the tree crashed into the roof of the ambulance, the EMTs initially thought they had been struck by another car, but then the roof began to slowly collapse under the weight of the tree and they quickly escaped from the vehicle, he said.

“A big piece of the tree lodged through the roof in the rear of the ambulance,” McCall said. “If somebody was in there, they definitely would have been hit.”

The two EMTs were “a little shaken up,” and have been given the rest of the day off, even though they requested to return to work, he said.

McCall estimated the tree had caused roughly $50,000 in damage to the ambulance alone.