Worcester apartment building evacuated after signs of collapse

WORCESTER - An early-morning roofing job at a Mill Street apartment building apparently led to construction material falling through the roof, weakening the building and forcing the evacuation of residents.

There were no reported injuries.

"This building will be vacant for a while," Acting Deputy Fire Chief Adam Roche said at the scene. "It is uninhabitable as we speak. Nobody is coming back to this building until a structural engineer says they can."

The 32-unit building at 267 Mill St. has been undergoing renovations.

Besides a gaping hole in the roof, some upper-floor porches collapsed.

Throughout the day, residents who were forced from their apartments looked on as firefighters assessed the damage.

Rachel Storey, 40, is a resident of the fourth-floor apartment where the roof caved in. She said she hustled toward the exit, staying close to the walls after her bedroom and living-room floors swallowed her belongings.

She grabbed a few clothes and a water bottle as the floor of her apartment started to collapse.

"I was running from my bedroom because the bedroom caved in," she said. "I was running through the living room and the living room was already caved in."

About 10:15 a.m. Friday, the Fire Department was dispatched for alarms sounding at the Pond View Apartment Homes, behind Mill Street Motors.

"They're doing a roofing job on the building," Roche said.  "It looks like whatever the load on the building is came through the middle of the roof."

Upon arrival, firefighters evacuated all the occupants of the building, Roche said.

"We are going to determine the weight load on the roof and try to remove the weight load and get a structural engineer to come access the damage and (determine) whether entry can be made into the building," the deputy said.

"The decks are part of the collapse," Roche said. "We believe that the roof collapse pushed the deck upward because they are tied to the floor joist and ceiling joist."

Storey, the resident, said the roof of the building had been plagued by leaks since she moved in a couple of years ago.

Jacob Elbirt lives in the second-floor apartment right, below where the roof gave in. He ran out of his apartment with his cat, Zoey.

“I heard some dribbling water in my kitchen. I went to go to check it out and the entire ceiling opened up and started gushing water,” Elbirt said. “I heard the Fire Department knocking on everybody’s door, telling them to evacuate. So I grabbed my cat and got the hell out of there… In the 10 seconds that it took me to grab my cat and get out the door, the water was ankle deep.”

The American Red Cross and a bus from the Worcester Regional Transit Authority were on scene to help displaced residents.

The apartment complex recently changed handing. On June 2 it was acquired by Fren Management, a Franklin company, according to the Registry of Deeds.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Worcester apartment building, 267 Mill St., evacuated after signs of collapse