Franklin

‘Like it was the end of the world': Family shaken, but unhurt, after crane falls on Franklin home

Joan McCarthy was sitting on her front porch when a crane working to remove trees tipped over onto her house

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A construction crane fell tipped over and fell onto a home in Franklin, Massachusetts, on Wednesday.

Images from the scene showed the tilting crane leaning on the house on Michelle's Way, its beam resting on the roof.

“Fear. Terror. Terror like it was the end of the world. Like your house was on fire and you needed to get out of the house, it was that."

Joan McCarthy recalled the moment it tipped over Wednesday morning.

“The next thing we knew when he put the boom up, the crane started coming towards us and it wasn’t that far from where we were sitting.”

She'd been sitting on the front porch with her son before racing inside to find her faughter.

“I ran inside the house because my daughter was in the house. And because the farmer's porch is covered we didn’t know if the whole house had come crashing down or not so I ran and screamed for her to come out of the house and we got out.”

The crane was originally called in for tree removal.

“You wouldn’t be talking to me if it hadn’t caught that chimney because we were literally sitting right in front of that crane.”

Amidst the panic, Joan's husband Jim raced home from work.

“I got that call. Where I instantly knew by the tone in her voice something was instantly wrong.”

Anxiously riding the commuter rail from South Station to Norfolk, he was filled with questions, but thankfully found his family unhurt.

“I don’t care about the house. Everyone’s ok. And that’s all that matters. All that stuff can be replaced. This stuff is not replaceable. I’m sorry. What a blessing.”

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