Kasey Bubnash and Julia Guilbeau
The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate
(TNS)
Dec. 30—A building near Magazine Street in the Lower Garden District partially collapsed Monday night, burying two cars under a pile of rubble, blowing a transformer and leaving hundreds of residents in the dark.
The New Orleans Fire Department responded to the partial collapse of the two-story building at 1800 Hastings Place, at the intersection of Hastings Place and Magazine Street, around 6 p.m.
No one was injured in the collapse, according to NOFD officials, and the building appeared to be vacant. Officials were working to determine the stability of the building and had closed off the area to traffic as of 7:30 p.m. It was not immediately clear when the street would be reopened.
Around 300 people in the surrounding area were without power following the collapse. Beau Tidwell, a spokesperson for Entergy New Orleans, said the structure’s collapse damaged the utility’s equipment, including a transformer, causing a bright flash that several neighbors saw. Crews were on scene assessing damage on Monday night.
Lane Griffin, a neighbor who lives down the street from the collapsed building, said he heard a big explosion followed by several smaller ones. He then heard sirens and came outside to see the rubble.
Other neighbors gathered around the building, watching from afar as firefighters surveyed the damage.
The building is the second to collapse in the past month in New Orleans. Several blocks in the Central Business District were closed to traffic after an O’Keefe Avenue building partially crumbled on Dec. 14. Another building in the 1400 block of O.C. Haley collapsed in September, crushing two cars parked outside.
State Sen. Royce Duplessis, who lives nearby the latest collapse and was on scene Monday night, expressed concern about the repeated building failures.
“This can’t be like a trend. This can’t be something that continues,” Duplessis said.
Several buildings next to the collapse caught fire in October, however NOFD officials said it was too early to determine if the blaze had any impact.
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