Fire/Rescue News - BUILDING BARELY HANGS ON IN ATLANTIC CITY
ATLANTIC CITY--Scary moments in Atlantic City this morning after officials discovered a leaning structure and feared a sudden collapse. Fire officials received reports of an unsafe building and as a precaution evacuated one individual. The properties owners calls it a "blessing in disguise."....Continue Reading
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"A very big surprise to us because we had no idea how bad the building was leaning."
Reverend Kwame' Rubadiri said the property at 112 Tennessee Avenue was in bad condition when the Second Baptist Church of Atlantic City purchased it, but they were were not aware that the roof had begun to lean.
"We knew it had suffered some damage but we had no idea how much more damage the weather was affecting it."
Once fire officials received reports of an unstable structure and arrived on-scene, they found the roof leaning on the adjacent property and evacuated one person living next door as a precaution.
The building had been scheduled for demolition within the next couple of months.
Atlantic City Fire Chief Dennis Brooks said, "The current weather conditions in the last month really made the building much more unstable to the point where they have to do it right now."
City engineers, Code Enforcement officials assessed the damage for hours and determined the building needed to come down without delay.
Chief Brooks says, "They were looking into having it demolished on their time schedule but now due to the structure and what's going on they've got to get it done."
Church officials said they had been planning an expansion on the site for years and because no one got hurt they can view this as a blessing in disguise.
"Because we had no idea how bad it was and we had plans in the course of this month or next month to have the building torn down, so this works out perfectly for us," said Rubadiri.
And within minutes bulldozers were brought in to tear down the building.
Reverend Rubadiri added, "We had plans to expand our church sanctuary for a decade now and we're hoping this year 2010, we actually will break ground and build on this same area right now."
