MIAMI (WSVN) - Police have reopened a section of a major roadway in Miami after a building overhang and part of a roof collapsed onto the pavement, prompting an hours-long closure in the middle of rush hour and beyond, officials said.
City of Miami Fire Rescue responded to reports of a building collapse along the 3100 block of Northwest Seventh Avenue, at around 4:25 p.m. on Wednesday.
Surveillance video from a business across the street captured the partial overhang. The overhang was seen coming down moments after a black SUV heading northbound drove by the building.
David Soto, the business owner who provided the security footage said he heard what sounded like a roar, a very unusual sound that he had not heard before.
“A roaring of something, just a big bang,” he said. “Something that wasn’t supposed to be happening at the time.”
Soto said he came running outside and saw the sidewalk covered in chunks of downed building. He then checked his surveillance video.
Just after 6 p.m., 7News cameras captured structural damage and the collapsed overhang.
Officials said the occupants of an apartment located at the rear of the structure were evacuated in case there was a secondary collapse.
Witnesses said there was pedestrian on the sidewalk moments before the partial collapse.
“Had a bus coming by on Seventh Avenue, and then an old man walking down the sidewalk,” said Soto, “and then, as soon as the man just passed by, the roof just collapsed.”
Soto said the security footage showed a northbound sedan swerving in order to avoid the debris.
“As soon as it collapsed, a car was coming by, too, and he just swerved out of the way. He missed [the debris] by milliseconds,” he said.
Fortunately, no one was hurt.
“Luckily, there was nobody inside the building,” said Soto.
Miami Police officers shut down Northwest Seventh Avenue in both directions between 30th and 32nd streets while crews clear debris from the street and the Miami Building Department completes its assessment of the building’s integrity.
The family who was evacuated has been allowed to return to their home. No one was displaced.
Electricity has been lost in the area, so a Florida Power and Light crew responded to the scene to deal with the outage.
Meanwhile, crews took down remaining edges of portions of the roof that didn’t come down.
Miami City Commissioner Miguel Gabela arrived at the scene as crews worked to remove the debris.
“This building had an unsafe structure problem already. They’d been cited,” he said.
7News cameras captured the commissioner speaking with Soto in front of the building.
Gabela said this near disastrous moment is an example of why inspections and upkeep of structures are so important.
“This, you know, however, reminds us we do need to pay attention to these things,” said Gabela.
“That’s a pretty old building, so I don’t know if they passed a 40-year inspection,” said Soto.
The roadway reopened to traffic at around 9:30 p.m.
Fire officials said the structure will possibly be demolished, probably within a week. As of late Wednesday night, the cause of the partial collapse is unknown.
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