New Orleans: A two-storey building collapsed

On Monday December 30, around 5:43 p.m. local time, a two- storey building partially collapsed at Magazine Street in the Lower Garden District. Specifically, a large portion of the roof and the second-floor façade collapsed scattering bricks, timber, glass and debris onto the street, while a parked vehicle was damaged.

Furthermore, several nearby power lines were affected and brought down. It should be noted that the building was used as a guitar shop but at the time of the collapse was vacant. Fortunately, the incident didn’t cause any injury. According to the authorities, the Fire Department of New Orleans with 25 firefighters and a total of seven companies arrived at the site promptly within 5 minutes.

As of present, according to the statement of Quentin Brown the NOFD captain, the reason for the collapse remains unknown. However, an investigation is undergoing to determine the cause of the incident. In addition, he stated that inspectors from the city’s Safety and Permits and Code Enforcement departments are evaluating whether the rest of the structure can be salvaged or if demolition is necessary.

Moreover, to ensure public safety, the intersection will remain closed to both vehicles and pedestrians for several days while the Entergy New Orleans crews were on-site and cut power to much of the surrounding neighborhood to ensure safety during inspections. The duration of the outage is currently unknown.