Part of the roof at a former shopping center on Beach Boulevard collapsed on Monday, leaving no one injured but a number of businesses evacuated, according to the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department.
The collapse, as seen in drone video by news partner First Coast News, occurred at the southeast corner of the Truth Entertainment Complex at 11100 Beach Blvd. The site contains a nightclub and comedy club as well as pool hall and dog day care west of Interstate 295 and St. Johns Bluff Road.
Fire department spokesman Tom Francis said they received two 911 calls just after 11:30 a.m., one from the alarm company, the other from a bystander saying he heard an explosion there.
Arriving fire crews found the partial roof collapse at the L-shaped center's southeastern corner, and no immediate cause has been blamed for the incident so far, Francis said.
"Crews immediately set about with a primary search while evaluating the rest of the building for structural integrity," he said. " ... There was a lot of water inside the building that was impacted, but that could be from the sprinkler system or a storm system that passed through." '
Animals and staff were evacuated from the dog day care by Jacksonville firefighters, as seen in a video tweeted by the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. It was shut down as a precaution, as was the pool hall, comedy club and the night club portion closest to the collapse, Francis said.
Images of the roof collapse posted by the fire department show one corner of the roof on a yellow-painted cinder block structure collapsed, spreading debris onto a nearby service road.
The collapse occurred after a morning of torrential rain from a cold front that moved through the area, but a further investigation will have to be done to determine the cause, Francis said.
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