AUBURN — Eleven people were displaced from a Minot Avenue apartment building after it started to collapse Sunday night.
Nobody was injured, according to officials.
Deputy Fire Chief Matthew Fifield said that just before 10:30 p.m. Sunday, the Auburn Fire Department received a call from a tenant at 386 Minot Ave. that the ceiling had started to collapse.
Tim Doucette kisses his cat, Q, before putting him in his car Monday afternoon. He and fellow tenants at 386 Minot Ave. in Auburn were displaced when the roof of the building above his apartment collapsed. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal Buy this Photo
Upon arriving, Fifield said residents told firefighters that they heard popping sounds as the building started to collapse.
“We could still hear the building settling as we came in,” he added.
A ceiling collapsed Sunday night on a top-floor apartment at 386 Minot Avenue in Auburn. Rick Cleveland photo via WGME
Fifield said fire officials found there was a “significant failure in the roof truss system” of the building, and it was structurally unsafe for people to live in.
The next morning, Fifield said he and other fire officials were joined by building owner and landlord Norman Roberts, and the city’s code enforcement officer and electrical inspector to continue investigating.
“After looking around again, we continued down the path that the building was unsafe and that no one should be allowed in it,” Fifield said.
Roberts paid to place the 11 tenants in a hotel, according to Fifield.
Over the next two days a structural engineer will investigate and determine whether “any part of the building is available for people to live or work in,” Fifield said.
The Auburn Fire Department is working with a structural engineer to determine the extent of damage at a Minot Avenue apartment building after a partial collapse Sunday night. WGME photo
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