MA Firefighters Evacuate Collapsing Building

The rear wall of an apartment building collapsed Sunday afternoon, forcing several families from their homes.

City Building Department officials said the structure is too precarious for renters to return until repairs can be made.

Holyoke Fire Department Capt. Kevin Cavagnac said 12 tenants in units 108 through 114 West St. were evacuated after the rear bearing wall of Unit 112 collapsed, leaving a gaping hole where a window was ripped out.

No one was injured in the incident.

Tiffany Labonte lived in Unit 112 and was just walking out of her bathroom when the wall started to collapse into the alleyway behind the building.

Collapse
Posted by Holyoke Fire Department on Sunday, December 6, 2020

"I was walking out the door when I heard a crash," she said. "The whole thing was gone."

"We couldn't take anything," Melissa Lind, the renter in Unit 114 said of the evacuation. "I have pets in there. I don't know what I can do about them. My kids left in shorts and bare feet. It is lucky I have a car we could get into."

Labonte said she left all her medications in the apartment and has nothing to help control her asthma.

Holyoke officials evacuated a four-unit apartment building at 108-114 West Street when a rear brick wall collapsed Sunday afternoon.

Police and firefighters responded to the call at about 2 p.m. and found some bricks had already fallen from the facade and saw the brick wall was bowing out and in danger of completely crashing down. They evacuated the four units of that building and 116 West St., which is located in the back of the damaged building, Cavagnac said.

As the tenants evacuated out the front door of the building, the rear wall did collapse, he said.

The city building inspector examined the two-story building and determined it was too dangerous for the 12 residents of 108-114 to remain in the building until repairs are made and ordered utilities to be shut off, Cavagnac said.

The residents of 116 West St. have been allowed to return to their homes, he said.

The American Red Cross of Western Massachusetts was also contacted but they do not respond to issues like these.

Both women said they have been trying to bring the building's structural problems to the landlord's attention for several months, even sending photographs of the bulging rear bearing wall.

"We have been calling him for the past six months trying to tell him about the wall," Lind said.

Labonte said she called the landlord and the city Health Department over the course of several months but did not hear back from either.

Both women said the building is owned by a West Springfield LLC called Four Harps, located at 698 Westfield St. Calls to the company's number were not returned.

The building owner is making temporary arrangements for the tenants at a West Springfield motel, Cavagnac said.

___

Visit The Republican, Springfield, Mass. at www.masslive.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.