"They want to know what are the risk factors," Leon said. "They ask for an evaluation and if I can do a visual inspection."

It costs about $175 for a visual inspection and $375 for a documented evaluation, Leon said.

Wilbur D. Dorothy of AB Tree Care Inc. said he has had only two calls, but one of the trees he looked at in Saint Louis Heights should be cut down.

"It's a good example of someone being concerned about their tree," Dorothy said. "I would take it out. If anything happened, it could wipe out a whole bunch of houses."

There are many Norfolk pine trees in Saint Louis Heights, and the soil is not deep on the rocky hillside, meaning reduced stability, he said.

"There are a lot of pine trees out there that should come down, but it costs money," he said, adding that the typical cost to remove a large pine tree is $3,000 to $4,000.

In Manoa, the city-owned tree that fell was inspected for disease and stability in November. The tree fell about 4:50 a.m. in the 2300 block of Beckwith Street, leaving Julia Engle with head injuries, according to police. The girl is still unconscious, but improving slightly, according to her family's attorney, Rick Fried.

Tree experts for the city and the family are studying the dead tree to try to determine why it suddenly fell. According to city officials, the tree was "topped" more than a decade ago. That may have contributed to it becoming diseased, Leon said.

The city is responsible for maintaining about 225,000 trees. The city Department of Parks and Recreation Division of Urban Forestry has about 110 employees who maintain trees in city botanical parks, regular parks, medial strips and along city streets throughout the island.

City spokesman Bill Brennan said there have been a few calls from residents asking for trees in their neighborhood to be inspected. That tree and others in the area were deeded to the city 11 years ago from the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, he said, and the tree was topped before that.

"Instead of cutting a tree from underneath and thinning it out, there was a practice back then where they just chopped off the top to make it shorter," Brennan said. "I guess it was a somewhat accepted practice until they realized that after you cut them off it doesn't grow back exactly the same way."

Arborist Leon said topping often leads to the death of a tree.

"Topping is the number one worst thing you can do to a tree," Leon said. "I'm really hoping (this incident) will bring more awareness to topping of trees. That you actually might have taken an otherwise healthy tree and now just created a hazard."