Shawnee Main Street building collapses unexpectedly during demolition

SHAWNEE, Okla. (KFOR) - A building on Shawnee's Main Street unexpectedly collapsed during its scheduled demolition Tuesday afternoon.

Shawnee City Manager Andrea Weckmueller-Behringer tells KFOR a private contractor was working to take down the structure when the north portion of the dilapidated building partially collapsed.

A wall shared with the neighboring business was exposed during the collapse, and it started buckling.

"Although the shared wall appeared to look like concrete to the contractor, it turned out to be brick with what appeared to be little mortar or dry-stacked, and then covered by concrete-like stucco," said Weckmueller-Behringer.

Thankfully, Shawnee’s Chief Code Official and Fire Marshal was able to get the people inside the neighboring business to vacate the premises before a portion of the shared wall collapsed into that building and no one was hurt.