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Building partially collapses in uptown Beckley

BECKLEY, W.Va. — The top floor of an aging building in uptown Beckley collapsed early Wednesday morning.

“The top floor collapsed and fell into the alleyway and took out the electrical lines that fed most of the buildings along the alley. Also the building that collapsed fell on either side and damaged buildings on either side and hit a building behind it,” Beckley Fire Captain Joe Coughlin told MetroNews affiliate WJLS Radio.

The incident happened at about 3:30 a.m. on Main Street. The initial collapse occurred at the Walton’s bond building. One of the neighboring buildings housed some of the Jan Care Ambulance service storage and computer equipment.

“It affected our whole supply department and a portion of our IT department,” said Jan Care’s Todd Cornette. “It took out some of our main primary servers and the roof collapsed in on our supply department. It’s been a tough day for us so far.”

Fortunately nobody was injured. Firefighters had a difficult time accessing the second building across the alley which collapsed. The debris fell on top of the gas meter at the building’s entrance. Coughlin said it broke the line, causing a gas leak and created a very dangerous situation for a period of time.

“We couldn’t get in because right where the gas meter is is where the building collapsed and to get to it from the outside, you had to be under the part of the building that was still coming down,” Coughlin explained.

Main Street was shutdown and will remain closed until further notice. Coughlin expected some of the building, particularly what is left of the top two floors will have to be razed.

“The front top story of this building is unsupported and could fall at any minute,” he said.

Steve New of the New-Taylor Law Firm owns one of the buildings. He got the early morning call as well.

“Jan-Care has people there overnight, but we didn’t have anybody in the building. Thank God everybody is apparently safe,” New said.

Nobody was injured in the collapse. An investigation into the cause will start once the building is secured. Beckley Mayor Rappold said the deterioration of interior of the structure contributed to its collapse.

WJLS Radio reporter Keith Thompson contributed to this story. 





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