Acacia falls to ground near trolleybus station in downtown Chisinau

An acacia tree tumbled down on Tuesday morning in the immediate vicinity of a trolleybus station on Banulescu-Bodoni Street in Chisinau, nor far from Stephan the Great Public Garden. The tree had the leaves green, but was rotten inside. The street had been closed for traffic for about 2-3 hours. While on the spot, the deputy mayor of Chisinau Nistor Grozavu has told Info-Prim Neo that the acacia was about 40 years old. It broke from the middle and fell down at about 7.50 in the morning. The tree was at least 50 meters high. The upper branches stopped in the roof of the building and trees located opposite. A part of the branches fell on the electric trolleybus cables. Fortunately, no person was injured and no unit of transport was damaged, the deputy mayor said. Eliferie Haruta, the head of the Green Spaces Association, told the Agency’s reporter that it was hard to presume that an apparently healthy tree was rotten inside. The exhaust fumes and temperatures of about 40 degrees Celsius affect the trees. “It is difficult to detect the rotten trees and assess the real condition of the trees as they look absolutely healthy outside, as the tree that is near the fallen tree. After the high winds damaged hundreds of trees, a special commission started to check all the trees in Chisinau, most of which are older than 30-40 years,” Haruta said. July’s rainstorm and strong winds uprooted about 300 trees. Another 50 trees were partly damaged. The poplars, willows and acacia are the most vulnerable species.