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HILLSBOROUGH: FEMA team tackles big downed trees

    FEMA-directed workers from Arizona cleared trees on public land in Hillsborough on Thursday and Friday.
    On Thursday the team of 19 forest fire fighters worked in a park in Flagtown. On Friday, they cut up trees in open space next to soccer fields on Amsterdam Drive. Some of the trees had fallen into back yards on Burniston Court.
    After a filling lunch at 5 Guys, they were brought to a paved bicycle path leading to Amsterdam School. They cleared a huge oak tree that had fallen across the path, crushing a section of a stockade fence and partially landing in the backyard of John Mammino of Wincot Court, off Pembroke Trail.
    Mr. Mammino brought bottled water out for the workers.
    He said he and his family were sitting in the dark in the family room on the night of the storm when they heard a “very terrifying” sound of a tree falling.
    “It’s a very terrifying thing to hear a tree crack like that and sit there waiting for it to come down,” he said.
    The fallen tree had crushed a chainlink fence across the back line of his property.
    He said he and his wife, Karen, who is a teacher in the intermediate school, opened another gate on the property to allow kids to ride or walk around the obstacle.
    The FEMA team was comprised of wildland firefighters from the Tucson area in southern Arizona. They were being housed at Fort Dix and said they may be in New Jersey for two to three weeks.