Lunch Break Saves Mass. Workers From Collapse

MARBLEHEAD — Lunch may have helped save a construction crew from serious injury.

Workers set out to repair a stressed roof at the Pleasant Street Walgreens on Tuesday. After installing several two-by-sixs to shore up the building, said Marblehead fire Capt. Michael Porter, the workmen broke to eat.

”And that’s when the roof collapsed.”

If the men had been inside, Porter said, someone would have been caught beneath the wreckage. Instead, no one was hurt.

After the collapse, the entire 89 Pleasant St. mall was sealed off with police tape and the buildings locked. The windows of the Walgreens, at the center of the structure, were boarded up. Also closed are Salem Five, 7-Eleven and Starbucks. The latter featured a sign on its front door Wednesday reading, “Closed due to damaged roof. Will reopen as soon as possible.”

The center structure housing the Walgreens has been condemned, according to Building Inspector Bob Ives.

”It has to be removed and reconstructed,” he said. The roof must be made stronger.

Parts of the building may survive, but Ives indicated it may be a long time before anyone orders a latte there.

After the collapse, said Porter, the wall between the bank and Walgreens “bowed out,” indicating an unsafe space. The building has a flat roof, which limits its ability to shed snow. Even so, Porter reports, there was no water leaking from the ceiling.

Ives doubts that the recent snow, given its light consistency, can be blamed entirely for the collapse. He wonders if there wasn’t damage in an earlier storm and he points out that heating units weighing hundreds of pounds were located on the roof. Additionally, drains meant to allow the roof to shed liquid may have been sealed by ice, adding to the strain on the building’s trusses.

Despite the snowfall, there were no other roof complaints in the town, according to Ives.

The first sign of danger came on Monday morning, said Ives, when Walgreens’ employees reported hearing creaking sounds, which they supposed were caused by the wind and snow outside. But by Tuesday the store manager began noticing a bulge in the ceiling, which eventually sank by more than a foot.

When firefighters arrived on the scene they heard the creaking and evacuated the store, believing that more serious trouble was simply a matter of time. Utilities were disconnected, including the sprinkler system, gas and water.

The owners of the building, 89 Pleasant Street Limited Partnership, sent an architect, an engineer and contractor Doug Dubin to deal with the problem, said Ives, and prevent more serious destruction. It was while the crew was outside, eating lunch, however, that a “crunch” could be heard.

”The building collapsed,” said Porter. “Now they’re trying to figure out what they’re going to do with the building.”

The structure was originally the Miller Ford auto dealership and is several decades old, according to Ives.

Thanks, neighbor

It’s been a challenging couple of weeks on the North Shore, but good neighbors have made it a little easier. Did your neighbor swing by with a snowblower, or grab a shovel and help dig out your car? Maybe they watched your children while you made your way to work or brought over hot coffee on the coldest day of the week. Here’s your chance to say thanks. Send us an email to [email protected] and tell us how your neighbor helped you out. We’ll use the best responses in a story this weekend.

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