The Calgary Fire Department says it dispatched firefighters to deal with 36 simultaneous calls for assistance during an extreme wind event that took place in the city on Tuesday.

Beginning at about 3:30 p.m, officials say they had to deal with over 200 calls for assistance through 911 during the three hour period.

The calls included downed power lines, damaged roofs, uprooted trees and structural damage.

One family on Lake Simcoe Crescent in southeast Calgary was stunned when a large tree came down on their home, knocked over in the wind.

Dennis Corrie and his wife planted the tree outside their home 37 years ago and they had been told by an arborist earlier this year that it might need to come down.

The couple wanted to keep it, but the wind had another idea.

“She looked outside the front window and said ‘I think the tree is down!’ and I said ‘you’ve gotta be kidding me.’ We looked outside and, sure enough, there was a tree resting against our front window. We went outside to see what was going on and, as you can see, it came right out of the ground,” he said.

No one was hurt but there was damage to his roof and his neighbour’s roof.

Power was also knocked out briefly in a number of areas of the city, but ENMAX crews were able to get that restored in short order.

At Calgary’s Emergency Operations Centre on Tuesday, residents were warned to take shelter from the storm, especially if you don’t have to.

A number of buildings in the downtown core had windows broken in the storm, showering glass and debris onto the pavement below. 8 Avenue between 2 and 3 Street S.W. was closed because of the situation.

Fortunately, no one was injured in any of the incidents.

“Normally when these events happen in one section of the city [they’re in one area]; northeast, northwest. This one spread right across Calgary itself which presents issues for us. We had between 35 and 50 pieces of apparatus out,” said Battalion Chief Al Magwood with the CFD.

The strong wind also caused a lot of problems on the highway. RCMP says a transport truck on Highway 22 near Chain Lakes was knocked over in the wind.

Officials remind citizens to stay well away from down power lines and to call 311 for assistance with any non-emergency situation.

(With files from Ina Sidhu and Lea Williams-Doherty)