High winds caused a large tree to fall Wednesday afternoon crushing the back of a home on the corner of Vine and East Oak streets.

Homeowner Denise Jacobs-Woolf and her son, Briton, were able to escape before the tree fell.

“My son and I just got out in the nick of time,” Jacobs-Woolf said. “We thought it was a tornado.”

Kent Fire Chief James Williams said the fire department received a call about the incident at 12:10 p.m. Fire officials secured the scene to make sure there were no utility problems.

Williams advised homeowners not to go near any downed power lines.

Jacobs-Woolf’s husband, Paul, is part of the tree care company that was working to move the tree during the afternoon so the house would not cave in.

Jacobs-Woolf advised homeowners who live near trees to keep them trimmed and elevated away from their houses.

“Love your house because you never know when it’s going to go,” Jacobs-Woolf said.

There were four other trees that were reported down in Portage County including on Sandy Lake Road in Rootstown, Beal Drive and Old Forge Road in Brimfield and on state Route 44 north of Ravenna.

Contact Nick Walton at [email protected].