Firefighters and State Emergency Service officers were supported by Rural Fire Service volunteers yesterday as they removed trees and branches threatening homes and main roads across Canberra.

ACT State Emergency Service chief officer Tony Graham said the combination of strong winds and heavy rains had made conditions particularly dangerous.

''It's either trees or tree limbs that have fallen over on to homes or on to roadways or footpaths, that's the bulk of our work today,'' Mr Graham said yesterday.

''The rain has, to a degree, weakened the roots of some of the trees and then together with the high winds, it makes them unstable.''

Yesterday's strong winds snapped a large tree at Ey Place in Kambah, causing one branch to crash through a fence. Another of the tree's limbs narrowly missed a neighbouring roof.

The owner of one of the properties, Jody Whymark, spent yesterday morning in a deckchair on his neighbour's lawn, watching on with his family as firefighters tried to prevent the tree from collapsing on to his roof.

''We were lying in bed and we just heard 'crack', 'bang'. We've got a guinea pig cage out the back and we thought it was that, but my wife looked out the window and said 'There's a tree!' "

Mr Whymark's family were evacuated from the house, and as they were watching emergency services officers work, another tree collapsed nearby, luckily not causing any serious damage.

For more on this story, including details of emergency services advice to check for potentially dangerous trees in light of continuing bad weather, see the print edition of today's Canberra Times.