Emergency tree removal in Brevard County

First, the next ten minutes

The tree isn't going anywhere. People are what matter right now.

• Get everyone out of rooms under or next to the tree, and keep kids and pets back.
• Treat every wire the tree touches as live, including the thin ones to the house. Stay well back and report it to your electric utility. FPL says only specially trained line-clearing professionals should work around power lines (FPL tree FAQs).
• If you smell gas or anyone is hurt, call 911 before anything else.
• Don't cut limbs pinned under the trunk. They can be loaded like a spring and whip when the saw goes through.
• Move cars out from under a tree that cracked but didn't fall, only if you can do it without walking under it.

Take pictures before anything moves

Photos help with almost everything that comes next. In unincorporated Brevard, including Merritt Island, the county code says the threat should be documented before an emergency removal of a dead or seriously damaged tree: photos of the tree and the damaged areas, rough height, spread and trunk diameter, and how far the tree stands from the house or whatever it would hit (Brevard County Code s. 62-4334).

Cities have their own emergency provisions. Palm Bay's code allows removal of a tree posing an immediate threat with on-site verbal authorization (Palm Bay Code s. 175.014). Melbourne's city manager may waive the tree rules in a hurricane or other emergency (Melbourne LDC s. 9.272), and Titusville's City Manager may waive them after a hurricane, flood or freeze (Titusville Land Development Regulations). Check what your city has actually announced before relying on a waiver.

Keep copies for your insurer too, along with the crew's written estimate and the final invoice.

What the crew does on a tree-on-house job

The first task is taking weight off the structure without making the damage worse. That usually means cutting the tree off the roof in pieces, working from the top down with ropes or a bucket truck. When the tree is big or lies across the middle of the house, a crane may be the safer way to lift it off (see crane tree removal).

Once the weight is off, the rest gets cut up and either stacked, chipped or hauled. Roof tarping and repairs are a roofer's job, so line one up as soon as you know the roof is open.

Insurance and the neighbor's tree

Who pays depends on your policy and the facts, so call your insurer early and ask what they want documented before the tree is moved. This site doesn't handle claims and can't tell you what a policy covers.

On the neighbor question, UF/IFAS summarizes the general Florida rule like this: when a live tree falls onto a neighbor's property, the neighbor is responsible for their own damages, and there's no Florida case law directly on a landowner's duty to remove dead or hazardous trees (UF/IFAS FE962). A 2025 bill that would have changed that, the Fallen Tree Act, died in committee (Florida Senate, SB 724 (2025)). This is general information, not legal advice. The fallen tree guide goes further.

Before you dial: what helps the crew

A good first call takes two minutes and saves a wasted trip. Send a photo if you can, and cover these:

• What the tree hit: roof, car, fence, pool cage or nothing yet
• Whether any wire is down or touching the tree
• Rough trunk thickness, and the kind of tree if you know it
• How a truck gets close: driveway, side gate width, soft ground
• Your city, or "unincorporated" if your address has no city

About timing

After a big storm most tree crews in Brevard are booked at once, and nobody can honestly name a time before seeing the backlog. When you call, you'll get a straight answer about when the matched crew can come. If that isn't soon enough, you're free to call anyone else.