A building in Mount Vernon came crashing down early this morning while it was undergoing work, but the incident ended without anyone getting hurt. According to authorities, the structure completely collapsed, pancaking down to the ground and leaving behind a scene of heavy damage that crews spent the morning assessing.
The fire chief who responded described what had been happening at the site just before the collapse. The building had already been demoed, he said, and workers were there today doing work to shore up the building in an effort to keep it from actually collapsing, making the sudden failure of the structure all the more striking.
The timing spared the crew from disaster. According to the information officials gathered from the workers, they were taking a break when the building gave way, and luckily for them they were in the rear of the building rather than inside the section that came down.
Officials described the way the structure failed as a pancake collapse. That meant each floor basically dropped straight down onto the one below it, folding the building in on itself rather than toppling to one side, which helped keep the destruction concentrated in a single spot.
That containment proved important for the surrounding block. There was no structural damage to the two buildings on each side, officials said, and the collapse was contained to just this area, a fortunate outcome given how close the neighboring structures sit to the one that fell.
Not all of the debris stayed on the property, however. As the pancake collapse occurred, the brick front wall and the scaffolding were pushed out, and that is what could be seen laying on top of cars near the scene, part of the wreckage left behind by the failure.
As a precaution, the two adjacent buildings at 14 North Bond and 18 North Bond were evacuated temporarily while crews checked them. Once the integrity of those two buildings was confirmed to be sound, residents were allowed back, and the collapsed building became the subject of a large cleanup effort, with officials stressing that no one was injured.