Just half an hour before a Canada 150 event was supposed to kick off at the Botanic Gardens last Saturday (Feb 11), a massive 40m-tall Tembusu tree collapsed, killing one and injuring four others.
The tree fall took place at about shortly before ‘Canada 150: Celebrating Diversity through Music and Film’ was scheduled to take place, with a concert and movie screening lined up at the gardens. It was cancelled immediately after the incident.
Indeed, it was a freak accident that no one saw coming — but one with a deeply tragic outcome. We’re gonna unpack the things that happened during and since the incident:
What happened?
A colossal tree — towering 40m tall and 6.5m in girth — was uprooted without warning at 4.25pm at the edge of the Palm Valley in the Botanic Gardens, near the Shaw Foundation Symphony Stage. It brought down surrounding palm trees as well during the collapse.
Any casualties?
Sadly, yes. It killed an Indian woman and injured her husband — a 39-year-old French national Jerome Rouch-Sirech — as well as their one-year-old twins. Other than the family, 26-year-old Singaporean Tay Pei Lei was hurt as well during the incident.
They injured were taken to the National University Hospital (NUH) for treatment soon after. The extent of the injuries are unclear, but they’ve since been discharged from NUH, according to multiple reports on Sunday afternoon.
Who was the lady who died?
38-year-old Indian national Radhika Angara moved to Singapore back in January 2013, joining social and mobile payment platform Fastacash as their chief marketing and strategy officer.
It was four months ago when she left Fastacash to work for MasterCard, holding a high-level position as Regional Digital Marketing Head for Asia Pacific.
Describing the deceased as a “rising star in her field”, the global payment network giant is currently working to provide support to Angara’s family through their employee assistance fund.
“She had an energy and warmth that won her the respect of her peers and managers alike,” said MasterCard senior vice president for Asia Pacific communications Georgette Tan in a statement.
Prior to her move to Singapore, Angara studied at University of Pennsylvania and Ithaca College in the United States, before working in various firms such as electronic payment company Ingenico, international food company General Mills and Indian fashion e-commerce company Myntra.
What kind of tree was it?
It was one of Singapore Botanic Gardens’ many heritage trees, apparently. Over 270 years old (!!), it predated the establishment of the Gardens itself.
The Tembusu is categorised as a large evergreen tree native to Southeast Asia, and grows in an irregular shape. It’s wood is particularly hardy, and can last over 100 years especially since termites and weevils don’t consume this kind of wood. The trees produce heavy hardwood timber that’s often used in heavy construction such as bridges and boats.
The most popular tembusu tree of course can be found on the five-dollar note — the one with the outstretched low-lying branch.
Why did the tree fall in the first place?
It’s unclear for now. As it was a heritage tree, it had been subjected to higher frequency of inspections than any other trees in the gardens. According to the National Parks Board (NParks), it was last inspected and found to be healthy in September 2016.
Extra measures such as a lightning conductor had also been installed to protect the tree from lightning strikes. The tree was fenced off to prevent compaction of its root zone by visitors, while leaf litter was routinely applied to it to encourage healthy root growth.
A tree expert speaking to Channel NewsAsia believes that the most likely cause was water-logging due to the heavy rains that battered across the island recently. The surrounding soil could have loosened, leading to a rot in the roots. That, plus strong winds during storms.
Still, it’s best to let the authorities do their jobs and find out the root cause in their official investigations.
What’s happening now?
Investigations by NParks are still ongoing, and more inspections will be conducted in the next couple of days. All other trees in the Singapore Botanic gardens’ Palm Valley have been found to be safe, but NParks aren’t taking any more risks — they’ll be conducting more checks on trees in other places such as the Rainforest and all other heritage trees.
Palm Valley however remains closed off to public access due to further clearance operations and investigations. The rest of the Gardens is declared safe for the public to visit.
“The Botanic Gardens is our national treasure — we will spare no effort to ensue that it remains safe for all to enjoy,” wrote National Development Minister Lawrence Wong.
Commissioner of Parks and Recreation Dr Leong Chee Chiew assured the public that NParks have indeed stepped up inspections in response to the “increasingly unpredictable and severe weather conditions”.
“Going forward, we are already developing modelling techniques to better understand the structural behaviour of trees under varying environmental conditions like rain, wind and soil,” he said.
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