Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
(AP Photo/George Frey)
PROVO, Utah (AP) -- A large boulder tumbled down a Provo hillside Saturday and bounced through the second-story wall of a house before crashing through the floor into a basement-level garage.
Provo fire Battalion Chief Jeremy Craft said the four-story home is for sale and was empty, so no one was injured.
"But it is something to see," Craft said.
Neighbor Dave Nagel was working in his yard when he heard a rumbling sound. He looked up to see the rock bounding down the hillside. Nagel said he watched as the rock bounced off the hill and went airborne, crashing through a second-story wall and off the dining room ceiling before smashing a wall and dropping through the floor into the garage. He said the jagged boulder appeared to be 8 feet to 10 feet wide.
"The funny part about it is that the part of the outside wall that it hit had just been remodeled with new siding and windows," Nagel said.
Craft said there is no explanation for what happened.
"I can't imagine that it was man-caused," he said. "It could have been rain washing away some soil, and it could also be that it's been sitting there teetering for years and this was just the day."
A house just to the south was struck by a boulder and similarly damaged in 2005, he said. On Saturday, at least two other large rocks also came down the same hill. One damaged a playhouse nearby, Craft said.
Firefighters had not entered the home and were waiting for city building officials to inspect the property.
Nagel estimates the home is about 6,000 square feet. He said he tried to buy the property four years ago when he moved to Utah from California.
"The guy didn't want to negotiate," Nagel said. "He wanted $389,000. Now it's worth about, oh, 50 bucks."
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
