Tree Service · Emergency

Emergency tree service

If a wire is involved, call your electric utility first and stay well away — assume every downed line is live. If the tree is on the house, get everyone out of the affected part of the structure, then call your insurer and a tree company. Emergency removal typically costs two to three times standard rates, with Fixr citing a $450 to $5,000 range depending on the situation.

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Order of operations matters. People, then power, then property. Get everyone away from the tree and out of any room it is bearing on. If there is any wire in the picture — on the ground, in the branches, pulled off the house — that is a utility call, not a tree service call. Utilities respond to downed conductors around the clock.

Then photograph everything before anything moves. Wide shots and close shots, the tree, the damage, the direction of fall. Insurers pay claims on evidence. Once a crew has chipped the tree, your evidence is gone.

Call your insurance company before you authorize large-scale removal, if the situation allows. Emergency stabilization to prevent further damage — tarping a roof, removing a limb that is actively causing harm — is usually fine to do immediately, and most policies expect you to prevent further loss. Full cleanup and removal is where you want your adjuster's position on record first.

Be extremely careful who you hire in the 72 hours after a storm. This is when out-of-town crews arrive, knock on doors, and ask for cash deposits. The Insurance Information Institute warns to "be especially wary of individuals who go door-to-door soliciting business in the aftermath of a catastrophe" and flags the large-upfront-deposit pattern specifically. Urgency is real, but so is the scam.

How to choose

Downed wire: utility first, no exceptions: Do not approach, do not move branches, do not let anyone else. Call the electric utility's outage or emergency line and keep people back.
Photograph before cleanup: Wide and close, from multiple angles, with timestamps. This is the difference between a paid and a disputed claim.
Authorize stabilization, not the full job, on night one: Make the property safe. Then get your adjuster's position and competing quotes in daylight before signing off on a five-figure cleanup.
Never sign a blank or open-ended contract: Especially not an assignment of insurance benefits handed to you by someone who knocked on your door. Read what you sign or wait until you can.
Do not go up on a storm-damaged roof: A tree on a roof means compromised structure below your feet. Tarping a damaged roof after a tree strike is a job for someone with fall protection.

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FAQ

Tree Service emergency — common questions

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A tree fell on my house. Who do I call first?

If any wire is involved, the electric utility. Otherwise: get everyone out of the affected area, call your insurer to open a claim and ask about their emergency-mitigation policy, then call a tree company. Photograph everything before any wood is moved.

How much is emergency tree removal?

Per Fixr, emergency removal can run two to three times standard cost, with a range of roughly $450 to $5,000. Fallen-tree cleanup where the tree is already down and not on a structure is much cheaper — Fixr cites $75 to $150 for basic fallen tree removal.

Will insurance pay for emergency tree removal?

It depends on your policy and whether the tree damaged a covered structure. A standard homeowners policy covers trees and plants themselves "generally for about $500 per item," per the Insurance Information Institute, with exclusions for disease and poor maintenance. Coverage for removing a tree that hit your house is a different question — ask your adjuster directly.

The tree is leaning but hasn't fallen. Is that an emergency?

Treat it as one if the ground around the base is heaved or cracked, if the lean changed recently, or if it is leaning toward anything occupied. A partially uprooted tree can go over with no further warning. Keep people out of the fall zone and get an arborist out same day.

Sources

Where these figures come from

Fixr — Tree Removal Cost · retrieved 2026-07-26
Insurance Information Institute — Avoiding Scams After a Disaster · retrieved 2026-07-26
Insurance Information Institute — What Is Covered by Standard Homeowners Insurance · retrieved 2026-07-26