City inspects Perdock building

    Washington city employees have investigated the former Perdock building that partially collapsed Sunday, and determined that the collapse was caused by a break in a rotten wooden truss that supported the roof. Avenue B south of Washington Street is still closed, as is the sidewalk on the east side of the street. Dave Bruns, the acting city building and zoning official, entered the building earlier this week to survey the damage and figure out why the roof failed.

    Bruns said there were five or six trusses that supported the roof, and that one in particular near the southern end of the building was in very bad shape, and is believed to have caused the collapse.

    ?The wood is so rotted that you can break it off with your fingers,? said Bruns. ?That caused the main rafter to twist, which collapsed that section of the building. The next rafter south of it has a steel beam under it. In fact, the whole southwest corner would have collapsed if not for that steel beam.?

    Bruns said the rotten truss rotted mainly at the bottom. He said the top was protected by tin for fire safety. He said he didn?t know if the collapse was caused by a particular storm or by an accumulation of moisture over many years. 

    ?It could have been recent rain that brought it down or it just finally got fatigued enough that it broke,? he said. ?The building is still considered a dangerous structure. If any more of the roof comes down, it could shoot bricks clear across the street.?

    The building is owned by Marion Avenue Baptist Church. Bruns said the church has hired a structural engineer to examine the building and who will later meet with city employees. Pastor Larry Brown was unavailable for comment. Bruns said that based on his inspection, the building is a total loss.

    ?The roof is leaking all over the place,? he said. ?The whole roof needs to be repaired. If you don?t stay on top of repairing the roof, especially in these older buildings, it?s eventually going to fail.?

    Bruns said he was informed that Marion Avenue Baptist Church was planning to repair the roof this month, before the collapse occurred. The building was built in 1917 and was owned for many years by Bill Perdock before he sold it to the church in early 2008.

For the full story, see the Aug. 12 edition of The Washington Evening Journal