A housebuilder says they are investigating whether a minor earthquake on Teesside could have caused a porch on a home 25 miles away near Bedale to collapse.
The porch collapsed at the home of Caryl and Alex James in Jubilee Road, Aiskew, on Thursday evening.
The couple say they feel “very lucky” that nobody was injured in the incident.
Alex, a professional golfer, was sat on the sofa with the couple’s two young children when they heard a loud bang.
Alex went to the front door to find the porch had crashed to the ground.
Caryl, a business analyst for North Yorkshire County Council, said the family were “very lucky” as 15 minutes earlier her husband and children had walked under the porch to get to the door.
“It could have been so much more worse,” she added.
“Alex said it sounded like there had been a massive crash just outside.
“He was blocked in by the debris — it was very heavy and it took him and a neighbour all their efforts to move the porch onto the lawn.
“If just one of the slates had hit one of the children it could have been very serious.”
Mrs James said there had been no sign the porch was unsafe and they had never hung anything from it during the six years they had lived at the property.
“It was a very mild evening and there wasn’t any wind,” she added.
Mrs James posted details of the incident on social media and urged other householders in their area to beware of what had happened.
She said there were around 80 homes on their estate, with around half having the same design of porch as they had.
The couple have contacted Taylor Wimpey, the developer who built the homes, and company staff have visited the property today.
A spokesperson for Taylor Wimpey North Yorkshire said: “We would like to sincerely apologise to Mr and Mrs James for the distress and disruption this incident has caused.
“We are fully committed to resolving this matter with the affected customers as swiftly as possible and are investigating the cause of the incident as a matter of priority.
“As a responsible homebuilder, customer safety is of the utmost importance to us and we carry out regular checks throughout the build process.
“We are currently investigating the cause of the collapse to establish whether this was linked to the earthquake that affected the area yesterday morning.”
An earthquake was reported at around 6am on Thursday in the Stockton area.
It was a 2.8 magnitude tremor.
Mrs James said she “wasn’t buying” the suggestion it could have collapsed due to the earthquake.
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