A MUM-of-two broke down in tears describing how two 60ft trees crashed down on her house, crushing her car and her son's motorbike.

Gale force winds brought the trees down on a row of houses in Mendip Heights, Didcot, at about 8.05pm last night, trapping residents in their homes until the fire service arrived to cut the branches up.

Nicky Denham, 43, had just got home from a day at work at Rainbow Preschool in Wallingford and parked her car in the driveway minutes before it happened.

The mum-of-two said: "I sat down on the sofa and there was a bang and the whole house shook.

"I came out and there was my neighbour Darren with twigs in his hair."

The gale had pushed over one tree which fell into another, knocking it down in a domino effect.

The first tree scraped against the front of the row of houses, bounced off Mrs Denham's car, crushing the roof and windscreen, and badly damaged her son Alex's motorbike.

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A specialist fire and rescue team from Kidlington and firefighters from Didcot rushed to the scene and managed to work their way through the branches.

The team used chainsaws to cut away the branches of the fallen tree to make the area safe and allow the trapped people to escape their homes.

The fallen tree caused damage to both homes, Mrs Denham's car and 16-year-old Alex's motorbike.

Fire crews were at the scene until 11.30pm removing most of the tree and making the area safe.

Mrs Denham, a diabetic, went into shock and her blood sugar rocketted.

She was taken to the John Radcliffe in Oxford and did not get home until the early hours of this morning.

Today, she and her son Alex and 12-year-old daughter Charlie, took the morning off while they come to terms with what happened.

She said she had already been told by her insurance company that her car, which she uses to get to work and take Charlie to school, was a write-off, but this morning she did not yet know whether the firm would pay for a new one.

Station Manager Paul Webster urged people to take extra care during storms, especially when driving in high winds or rain.

He added: “This must have been a really scary event for the occupiers.

“We do see increased calls during very high winds and when they are forecast we do recommend checking tall structures, trees and any loose items especially in gardens to ensure that they are secure and are not going to get blown around and cause damage.

“In this case people don’t expect a tree of this size to be blown over.”

Last night an Oxford couple described how they narrowly avoided being hit by a tree which fell across the road.

County council spokesman Paul Smith said that 36 trees had been blown over during the high winds caused by Storm Barney between 5pm and midnight.

Mr Smith added that the council only deals with trees on highway land and not private property, so that more trees could have fallen throughout the region.

There were also five reports of broken streetlights ranging from damaged heads to broken Perspex which were passed on to Scottish and Southern Electric to be repaired.

High winds from Storm Barney also blew part of the roof off a home in Summertown yesterday evening.

Firefighters were called to the three storey house in Middle Way at about 7pm after the gusts blew two sections of roof to the street below.

The gale-force gusts also caused a tree to topple on to two cars and a van outside a pub in Headington.

Firefighters were called to the White Horse in London Road at about 7pm when a large tree fell to the ground, crushing the vehicles beneath it.

No one was injured and the fire crews made sure the area was safe.