Paul Bass Photo
Building Official Andy Rizzo, Asst. Chief Ralph Black, & Acting Battalion Chief John Shepa at the scene.
A 12-foot-high “veneer” wall collapsed onto the roof of the state armory on Goffe Street, forcing a partial evacuation of the jailhouse next door and prompting concerns about further damage.
The fire department got the call about the collapse around 6:30 p.m. Monday.
A man who was walking by the Goffe Street building called 911 to say he “heard a loud bang,” Capt. John Shepa, an acting battalion chief, said at the scene.
Crews arrived right away with Engine 6 and Truck 4 from the firehouse just up the street. They closed off surrounding streets to car traffic. Behind them, a concert rehearsal continued inside Bethel AME Zion Church with no interruption.
Shepa and Assistant Chief Ralph Black soon ascertained what had caused the bang: all but 40 feet of a freestanding 300-foot-long wall, separate from but connected to the armory’s roof, had collapsed.
No one was inside the armory, which has been abandoned and awaits new use. (Read about that, and peek inside, here.)
Concerned about a roof collapse, officials ordered the evacuation of the area of the state jail closest to the armory, a kitchen and laundry area.
They also called the National Guard and state fire inspectors.
Meanwhile, a truck with a ladder arrived. The city’s building official, Andy Rizzo, and Capt. Shepa went up in the bucket for a closer look at the damage. “It’s a good way of getting a bird’s‑eye view without landing in the nest,” Assistant Chief Black said of the bucket.
Afterwards, they concluded that the building was structurally sound. But they were concerned about further damage.
The armory has a “bow-string” center roof and two flat roofs along the County and Hudson Street sides.
A small portion of a veneer wall remained at the edge of the central roof of the armory on the County Street side.
Snow slipped down the central roof to the County Street side and pressed against the veneer wall that runs along the edge, Shepa said. That caused the wall to collapse and the bricks to fall onto the flat roof on the County Street side. Shepa and Rizzo were concerned about the weight of those bricks combined with all the snow built up on the roof from recent storms.
From what they could see from Monday night’s cursory inspection, no collapse took place on the Hudson Street side. It was unclear if any problems developed inside the armory on the third floor. The armory’s structure itself seemed to be sound and in no danger of collapse.
State officials arrived around 9 p.m. and assumed control of the investigation; they plan to go inside the armory Tuesday to take a closer look, said Shepa (pictured).
New Haven has been spared the dramatic roof and building collapses recent storms have brought to some other Connecticut communities. Earlier on Monday the fire department did respond to a call about a vacant Sherman Avenue residence where the roof caved in. Click here to read about one Elm Street apartment building where the city ordered tenants removed because of fears of a roof problem; here to read about an Eli Whitney Museum barn roof collapse; and here to read about garage roof collapses the city attended to last week.