HARTFORD -- Fire officials in Hartford have ordered a building to be torn down after the facade crumbled apart Thursday morning.
It happened on Garden and Capen Street. No one was injured but the building was immediately evacuated.
Hartford’s Deputy Fire Chief James York said his fire company was responding to a call at another area when they heard a loud noise. Surveillance footage showed the facade of the building that crashed down and left debris and bricks all over the ground.
“It’s extremely dangerous right now,” said Deputy Fire Chief James York.
York said his crews immediately did a search on the second floor where there were three apartments and only one of them had people inside.
“The stores on the first floor were occupied. Patrons were in the store. Employees were in the process of evacuating. Our companies made sure to evacuate. Ultimately, the building is in an imminent state of collapse,” added York.
Luckily, no one was injured and everyone was able to get out safely. The area was quickly blocked off as building inspectors called it a danger zone.
The Acting Director of Development Services told FOX61:
“Our Licenses and Inspection Division is taking a look at this property’s history. We know so far that the City did conduct inspections about five years ago and there were violations, but at this point we don’t yet know how that process ended. Based on the partial collapse today, the building is going to be razed in the coming days. We’ve made contact with the owner and the insurance company to try to expedite that process.”
“This all looked as if there were no issue prior to the collapse. The awning was up, the brick facade was across the front, but over time, water, maintenance issues that weren’t attended to,” added York.
York believes the building was slowly deteriorating and in poor condition that eventually led to the collapse.
