Section of vacant Long Beach home collapses
Porch caved in, city fire chief reports
Long Beach firefighters responded to an abandoned home on the corner of Lafayette Boulevard and West Market Street on Monday after its porch collapsed.
Fire Chief R.J. Tuccillo said that the home has been abandoned since Hurricane Sandy and the incident was reported at 8 a.m. When firefighters arrived, they found that the porch had caved in, he said.
Firefighters immediately began searching for any potential victims in the rubble, but the home was vacant and no one was injured, Tuccillo said.
Members knocked down the remaining pieces of stucco from the porch for safety reasons. Tuccillo said that the city’s Building Department is expected to issue violations to the owner of the home, which he said is very old and appears to have deteriorated significantly over the years, including the porch overhang.
“For the past six month’s it’s probably been held up by the stucco,” he said. “They’re lucky that nobody was there.”
