MANCHESTER, N.H. (WHDH) - Two people were injured by falling tree limbs at a church in Manchester, N.H. Thursday afternoon, according to the Manchester Fire Department.
At around 12:36 p.m., firefighters responded to the First Congressional Church on Hanover Street for a large portion of a tree that had fallen, the department said.
Crews freed a man and woman from underneath the tree limbs, officials said. They told first responders a gust of wind blew through just before the portion of the tree fell.
The man was taken to Elliot Hospital with serious, non-life-threatening injuries, according to the fire department. First responders requested a second ambulance for the woman, but she later refused treatment.
Marianne Fedele said she was the one sitting with her boyfriend when the tree came down on top of them.
“I was like two inches away from that tree when it fell,” Fedele said.
She said she and her boyfriend, Jerry, sit outside the church every day.
“Like we do regularly every day, and just talk, and we heard this crack after this wind was blowing and we were not expecting this,” Fedele said.
The noise she heard was unlike anything she’d ever heard before, Fedele said.
“It was like a large crackling noise to where you could hear it start, but we had our backs to the tree so we didn’t see it coming down,” she said.
Jerry, 78, remains in the hospital where he’s expected to have surgery, Fedele said.
“Jerry’s okay, he’s just in a lot of agony,” she said. “As long as he’s alive, we are both alive, that’s all that matters.”
The tree limbs also damaged a car parked on Hanover Street, the department said.
The street was closed while Manchester Parks and Recreation crews removed debris from the area. As of 6 p.m., Hanover Street was back open.
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