The partial collapse of a building prompts an evacuation and closure of streets in New Orleans’ central business district on Saturday

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – A partially collapsed building in New Orleans’ Central Business District prompted emergency responders to evacuate surrounding residents and close a section of O’Keefe Avenue Saturday evening (Dec. 14).

The dilapidated building is a three-story art museum and office building at 938 Lafayette Street at the corner of O’Keefe Avenue. Around 8 p.m., New Orleans police and firefighters were called to the scene and residents of the Paramount Apartments across the street were evacuated as a precaution.

A dented ground floor door frame could be seen from the street.

New Orleans Fire Department spokesman Capt. Edwin Holmes said the building had recently undergone repair or restoration work, but the extent was not immediately known. Holmes said the building’s brick façade had fallen to the sidewalk at the load-bearing corner of O’Keefe and Lafayette, cracks and shifts were visible in the building, a forward bulge was noticeable in the corner of the building and that “structural stability had deteriorated.” “have been compromised.”

The NOFD hired a city inspector to assess the structure and asked the building’s owner to send contractors to the scene to mitigate the hazard.

“We are not sure how much risk this building is at,” Holmes added. “It’s a very dynamic situation and at the moment we’re more concerned about the safety of the immediate area and getting everyone out safely.”

The New Orleans Police Department said it was providing traffic control in the area and closing O’Keefe Avenue to vehicle and pedestrian traffic from Girod Street to Poydras Street. Vehicle and pedestrian traffic will remain closed indefinitely within a one-block radius of the building, officials said, on Lafayette Street from Rampart Street to Baronne Street in the other direction.

According to NOFD, Entergy crews were also called to the scene to assist with gas and electrical containment.

Holmes said officials were concerned that the structural corner of the building had “begun to wrinkle,” an indication that collapse was imminent. He said other nearby buildings were in danger because the destroyed building was three stories high and if it fell, it could send debris a field one and a half times higher.

Holmes said the building across the street that houses the Maypop Restaurant and Paramount Apartments, as well as the Civic Theater next door on O’Keefe Street, are in the danger zone until the building is defused.

“The NOFD will stay here until someone gets here to remedy the situation,” Holmes said. “We can’t have traffic because a bus or a large vehicle could cause more rocks to fall or collapse just from the vibrations. We are trying to evacuate everyone from the imminent danger of collapse, but not everyone (in the apartment building) was home. Some people just come back and find out.”

The mixed-use building is home to the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, the Helis Foundation John Scott Center, the Immigration & Nationality Law Group and the accounting firm Whiteside and Simms, according to online records.

Holmes said there were “few, if any” people in the building when NOFD arrived and that it is currently unoccupied.

“We request that this area of ​​downtown be avoided until further notice,” Holmes said.

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