Building collapses in downtown Edmundston under weight of snow

A downtown building that's been part of Edmundston for at least 115 years collapsed earlyFriday, and city police sayit was probably because too much snow had piled up on its flat roof.

Insp. Alain Lang of theEdmundstonpolice said there were no injuries, and no one was near the empty building when it came down around4 a.m.

The building at Church and Hill streets is owned by Downtown Edmundston, which used it for storing tentschairs, tables and other equipment for a farmers market.

115-year-old Edmundston building collapsed under the weight of too much snow

7 years ago

Duration 0:52

A downtown building that's been part of Edmundston for at least 115 years collapsed early Friday, and city police say it was probably because of too much snow had piled up on its roof.

MelanieRuest, the co-ordinatorofDowntownEdmundston, said the group bought the building in2012 and planned to tear it down. A feasibility study was underway to build a farmers market on that lot.

"I felt bad for that because all of our stuff was stuck in there," saidRuest, who received a call from theEdmundston Fire Department shortly after the collapse.

"We will have to try and replace everything."

Materials costly to replace

Ruestsaid the materials in the building were worth about $8,000 and not insured. The remains of the building will be hauled away over the weekend, and the items inside it will have to be replaced, she said.

Ruest, who wasins the building only eight days ago, was grateful there was no one inside or nearby when it collapsed.

"It was a really old building," she said. "If I felt it was going to collapse I would've taken my stuff out I never thought it would collapse this fast."

Nearby buildings weren't affected by the collapse.

Plans to build a market on that lot and two others nearby ran into financial problems, Ruest said.

"The projectdidn't go down the drain, but we had to rethink it and we had to propose something else" she said. "Right now we're having a study made for something a little more small for a farmers market, and we should receive a study in three weeks orfour weeks and we were going to think about that lot."

The City ofEdmundston issued a notice toDowntownEdmundstonin 2017, asking it to either demolish or renovate the building.

This notice followed an inspection by the fire department that found the roof was leaking. The problem was not considered serious enough to order the immediate demolition of the building.

The collapse "happened a little too soon because we were going to do something in the really [near future],"Ruestsaid.

According to the Register of Historic Places in Canada, the "flat-roofed business house" was built around1900.

It was first a bowling alley and once housed the Star Movie Theater, one of two movie houses inEdmundstonin the 1920s. It also hosted boxing matches and housed Spilly's resto-bar.

The building is adjacent to a vacant lot onRue de l'glisewhere a major fire destroyed two old buildings six years ago. A restaurant, apartments and a laundry room went up in smoke.