On Jan. 23, an unusually windy day, a tree was uprooted and fell onto a student, now identified as Sara Jones.

Jones was trapped under the tree for approximately 30 minutes.

When the tree initially fell, students heard what they described as a loud crack and screaming before running out to the scene.

“I heard loud noises and people screaming so I came and looked,” said 19-year-old Bakersfield College student Stephanie Ogden.

Another student who ran to the scene was Roberto Garcia, who saw the tree fall over from his seat in the cafeteria.

“I was just staring outside when all of a sudden I saw the tree fall,” he said and added that he had not, however, been paying attention to the student underneath, just the tree.

Derek Oglesb, 37, was sitting at the In-Shape Health Club booth just a few feet away from where the tree landed.  He said it felt like he had been watching the whole scene unfold in slow motion.

He did not clarify whether Jones was seated or walking in the area, only that he had been looking at her, heard a loud cracking sound and watched the tree’s branches consume her as it hit the ground.

Oglesb and his companion were the first to reach Jones and they tried to remove as many branches as possible off of her, but could only do so much until the fire department reached the area with a chainsaw.

“She’s lucky to be alive,” said Oglesb. “It was surreal.”

He added that although she was complaining about her arm, and had her legs to the side, he believed she would be all right.

“Whether you are a nurse or a medical [major], we all just [did] what we could [to help].”

Michael Farber, BC’s Student Health and Wellness Center on-site physician, said Jones was still conscious when he had reached her and there appeared to be no sign of serious injuries.

She appeared to be OK, he said but added, “[She] didn’t say a whole lot.

“She seems to be a little bit upset is fair to say.”

Jones was awake and talking as firefighters and the rest of the response team — a total of two campus security patrols, two fire trucks, three Bakersfield Police Department cars and a Hall’s Ambulance Advanced Life Support unit responded to the emergency.

It took six men and one chainsaw to remove tree branches and adjust the tree.

Paramedics then carefully extricated the victim before being taken to Kern Medical Center’s emergency room.

Deputy Chief of Firefighters Tyler Hartley stayed on site with the rest of his team to help secure the area.

Students were not allowed to walk within the Campus Center’s proximity that had been tagged off with yellow tape for a couple of hours after the tree’s diminution that afternoon.

To his knowledge this was the first report on BC’s campus as well Bakersfield in general, to have a tree fall over and land on a person.

In a short interview with Amber Chiang, Director of Marketing and Public Relations, she stated that the campus trees had all recently received attention and had been significantly pruned in December.

The tree that fell over was one of the many that had been planted throughout the campus before becoming fully functional in 1956, approximating the tree’s age to over 50.

“They’re big trees, you can tell they’re old,” said Chiang

She also added that the recent drought being experienced in California had not affected BC’s irrigation schedule and the watering amount had been continued as normal.

“We have a tree company that checks on our trees constantly. These trees were [also] given clean bills of health in December,” she said.

“So we believe it to be the gusting wind that took it down,” she explained, saying any guesses as to what caused the collapse “would be speculation, beyond the wind.”

Jones was unavailable for comment. She has, however, been released from the hospital.