ANDREW Tillotson's first day at a new job went with a bang -- after he arrived to be told an 80-foot tree had fallen on to his house.

The lime tree crushed a garden shed where Andrew had just been to collect his motor bike as he left his home in Burnley Road East, Waterfoot, to go to work.

The huge tree came to rest with its upper branches on the roof of the terrace house.

The tree is one of many large trees in Trickett's memorial ground immediately behind the row of houses.

Andrew, 35, who is single and who had been in the house on his own, said: "I don't know if there is any structural damage to the house. I am not going in until I am told it is safe to do so.

"The shed has taken the brunt of the weight when the tree fell at about 8am. Just five minutes earlier I was in the shed getting my bike and if it had come down then I would have been crushed."

Andrew had just arrived at JJ Ormerod Kitchens, in Stacksteads, to start his new job as a driver when a neighbour rang to tell him the tree had come down on to his house.

He said: "My dog Zed was in the house but was not hurt. The tree has come down on the roof immediately above a bedroom used by my lodger Howard Smith, who is working away at the moment."

Andrew said neighbours had complained previously to Rossendale Council about trees which tower above the back of their properties.

It is thought the tree might have been brought down because of the extreme wet weather over the weekend.

Rossendale Council workmen were this morning at the scene cutting branches from the fallen tree to reduce the weight on the property.