Litchfield building collapses; some attendees at bridal shower hurt

A building partially collapsed in the 300 block of North State Street in Litchfield late Saturday morning, sending several people to a local hospital, according to the Litchfield Fire Department.

State Street is a main thoroughfare running through the city. Litchfield is about 45 minutes south of Springfield.

A portion of the roof and a second floor collapsed just before noon Saturday. The building adjacent to Short Furniture was hosting a bridal shower with 20 guests, said Litchfield Fire Chief Joe Holomy.

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Several people sustained minor injuries, including cuts, bruisies and scratches, Holomy said.

Holomy believed those persons who were transported to St Francis Hospital were treated and released.

All occupants in the building were quickly accounted for, he said.

Holomy said Montgomery County dispatch received 10 "911" calls regarding the incident.

"(The initial callers) were stating that it sounded like there was an explosion," Holomy said. "The witnesses (at the bridal shower) tell us that prior to the collapse they heard what they described as a 'crackling' sound."

Holomy said the owner of Short Furniture owns the building that collapsed and was on-site Saturday.

The structures, dating from the early 1900s, are interconnected and separated by brick walls, he said.

The furniture store was not open at the time Saturday and doesn't have regular Sunday hours, Holomy said. It will be allowed to reopen Monday.

There wasn't an immediate cause for the collapse, but several buildings south of the furniture store have been declared as uninhabitable by the city's building official.

That includes several businesses, Holomy said. Tenants in apartments above those buildings weren't allowed to re-enter Saturday. The American Red Cross was working with the renters to give them temporary shelter, he said.

Fencing has been erected on State Street from Ryder Street to just south of Short Furniture. Power and gas also remain shut off in this same area. The southbound lanes of State Street were closed to traffic between Kirkham and Ryder streets. The northbound lanes were open.

A structural engineer, Holomy said, is coming out Monday to survey the building and determine what next actions will need to be taken.

"There was an enormous amount of exertion and pressure that was put on those outer walls and because we don't know what that is, we need a structural engineer to tell us how is it that we dismantle this now," Holomy said.

Other agencies on scene included the Montgomery County Disaster Agency, Litchfield police and several city officials.

The Springfield Fire Department Technical Rescue Team was among those units responding to the scene. SFD is part of the Mutual Aid Box Alarm System, or MABAS system, and geographically had the closest tech rescue team to Litchfield, Holomy said.

Firefighters from Springfield were on scene for approximately two hours, Holomy said.

The scene was cleared around 5:30 p.m.

Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788, sspearie@sj-r.com, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.