The 80 tenants of a Division Street apartment building which had part of its roof torn off by high winds on Wednesday will be without their home for a few more days.
On Wednesday at about 4:30 p.m., part of the roof of the building at 385 Division St. was torn away and hung over the north side of the building. Emergency services were called and the building was evacuated to temporary shelter on a Kingston transit bus. No injuries were reported to Frontenac Paramedic Services.
"The roof membrane and the metal flashing pulled off the roof, and when it pulled off, it took some of the coursing of brick off the walls, which made the brick, in the wind, unstable," fire Chief Shawn Armstrong said Thursday. "The concern was that some of the bricks in the wall could come down and hit somebody."
The Red Cross and the immediate disaster relief team were called to assist the evacuees of the three-storey building, Armstrong said. While most tenants were able to stay with friends or family, 14 people and some of their pets are staying at the Delta Hotel.
"People were able to go in [to the building] and get some of their belongings while supervised by firefighters making sure that areas were accessible and safe," Armstrong said.
On Thursday, building officials, engineers and contractors were onsite assessing the building, Armstrong said.
"The main damage was on the one side of the building, but the concern was structurally as a whole system where the walls and roof are tied in -- did the other walls experience some stress that would cause them to fail, too?" Armstrong said.
"If the building is deemed safe while contractors continue work on the roof, then people will be allowed back in."
Though Armstrong could not estimate when the tenants would be able to return to the building, one tenant who contacted the Whig-Standard reported they would not be allowed back in for three days.
Armstrong estimated the damage to the building to be about $50,000.
Link to original article in the Kingston Whig-Standard: Tenants still out of damaged apartment building