Thomas Breen photo
69 Rock St.
A boarded-up, single-family home in Cedar Hill collapsed on Wednesday when a side wall caved under the pressure of a toppled tree.
No one was hurt, and the city’s building department plans to demolish the vacant home, which is owned by the city’s housing authority, tomorrow.
At around 2:30 on Wednesday afternoon, city Building Official Jim Turcio stood outside of the collapsed, one-and-a-quarter story home at 69 Rock St. in Cedar Hill. Cordoned off by police tape, the house’s eastern side shrugged under the weight of a 30-foot tree that had fallen from the back yard.
A mess of wood, vinyl-siding, and piping spilled out of a giant hole where the side wall once was.
City Building Official Jim Turcio surveys the wreckage with a fellow building department employee.
“The wall finally gave way,” he said, though he said he wasn’t sure how long the tree had been lying on top of the house. He said the home’s interior also showed signs of a fire in the not-too-distant past.
After Turcio surveyed the sides and back of the building with a fellow building department employee and a representative from the building’s owner, the Housing Authority of the City of New Haven (now known as Elm City Communities), he said that he wanted the building torn down by tomorrow.
Turcio: Tear it down tomorrow.
He asked his building department colleague to find a demolition contractor and to prepare the necessary paperwork for the building’s demolition by tomorrow morning.
“I’ll sign it first thing,” he said.