I felt the collapse of 505 Main Street from my dining room. I went to the window, expecting to see one of the frequent car accidents on Washington Street. The street was empty, but soon there were sirens and I popped my head out the door as fire trucks blocked the intersection of Main Street, and neighbors started to gather. A few minutes later, my husband called to say that Guilmartin's building had collapsed. He works in the next block and had already been to the site and spoken with Mike DiPiro who said that - amazingly - no one was hurt. He sent me a photo - taken at 10:48 am - which I posted to Eye.
How can such news be processed? I went through the next few hours, checking on things at Kidcity, talking with firefighters about the situation, distracting my kids and watching crews clear snow from neighboring flat roofs.
Are we safe? Is there anything we should do? How can we help?
This evening, we walked the South end of Main Street. It could have been 2 am during the usual dinner hour, Main Street was so quiet. The only restaurant open in the center block was Fiore's, which was actually busy.
Some of the buildings are cordoned off in front - we kept a wide berth around the awning of the Capitol Theater. First and Last, Thai Gardens, the Tavern at the Armory and Mondo's had a few customers - but everyone else was dark.
On the other hand, we seem to have a new kind of tourist in town. While I was taking a picture of the closed sign at Laser Tag, a family pulled up - mom, dad, 2 kids - all excited to watch the crane. They asked me what had happened and said they'd heard it on the news and had come to see.
I hear that Mike DiPiro feels like the luckiest man alive, and I know we are all grateful for the lack of injury today. But I'm still feeling so shaken - seeing a building lying in rubble, as one of my kids said, looking like someone took a bite out of it. It's a terrible thing.
Meanwhile, the crews are working:
3 comments:
To bad it takes a tragedy to get people & help to remove the snow and ice from the rooftops. :(
Why do we have to be reactive and not proactive? When or will we ever learn??? Next time it just may cost people their lives!!! We should ALL take this as a warning!
WAKE UP MIDDLETOWN!!!
True. I've seen homeowners all over the state scrambling to remove snow from their pitched roofs. Logically a flat roof is more likely to collapse due to the weight of snow. What have these building owners been thinking?
The two contractors working in the building are lucky as well. Another reminded how dangerous the construction industry is- just as dangerous as being in law enforcement or a fire fighter.
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