Paul Bass Photos
Inspectors check out the third story exterior …
… then head inside to check further.
Firefighters evacuated all a 12-unit Warren Street apartment building Thursday after part of the veneer collapsed.
Bricks and limestone “solider” keystones broke off from the front of the third floor of 55 Warren St. around 11 a.m. and crashed onto the sidewalk and onto a parked car.
The crash awoke Donato Piroscafo.
“I jumped out of bed,” said Piroscafo (at right in photo), a 23-year-old Gateway Communitiy College student. “I looked out the window. I saw rubble on the ground. I ran outside; then I saw it was from my bedroom window.”
He called his roommate, Jamie Batteon (at left in photo), a 22-year old Trinity Bar & Restaurant server and Southern Connecticut State University geography major. She was at Dunkin Donuts picking up coffee while on a last-minute Christmas shopping trip. She rushed back.
Firefighters arrived and cleared out the building. Police blocked off Warren Street, a one-block road off Wooster Street.
City Building Official Jim Turcio went up on a lift for the initial look.
Pat Lawler, father of building owner Paul Lawler, arrived on the scene with Claudio Encalada, whose contracting company does work for the family’s real-estate business. Turcio directed them immediately to get a crew to remove more of the brick from the veneer. He feared that more would fall and endanger public safety. Encalada promised to get a forklift on site in no time.
“This [building] could be saved. But they need to do some work on it,” Turcio said. “Make sure you have hard hats and everything else. Be safe.”
Click on the play arrow to watch him spell out the plan.
Meanwhile, firefighters made sure electricity was shut off in the 5,649 square-foot circa 1880 building. Fire Lt. Justin Bialecki took care of the gas.
Rafael Ramos of the Livable City Initiative (LCI) got to work arranging for alternative places for the tenants to stay Christmas Eve if the work doesn’t get completed by nightfall and Turcio doesn’t declare the building safe for reoccupancy.
Pedro Alvarado, who was staying in the building with a friend, said he wasn’t sure where he’d end up Thursday night. “I’m thinking about what happened on Orange Street,” he said, referring to this partial collapse that led to a tear-down. “I’m hoping that will not happen again.”
But by 4:30 p.m. Turcio reported that he expected work to be completed by early evening and tenants to be able to return inside.
Once again a top notch job done to insure public safety. Building Official Turcio, the fire department and Mr. Ramos seem to make quite a good team and work well together. Glad we have city employees working hard to keep our city safe. I am starting to have renewed faith in government and feel really good about being a New Haven resident, home owner and tax payer. Thank you Mayor Harp for allowing these employees to do their job without political interference! How refreshing this is.