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Overhang collapse a close call
By AMY WIMMER, Times Staff Writer
ST. PETE BEACH -- As he eased his blue Honda Civic into one of those coveted, meterless parking spots on a side street off Pass-a-Grille Beach on Sunday, Bob Anstey figured it must be his lucky day. He was wrong. Without warning, a roof overhang at the old Pass-a-Grille Coop building on Eighth Avenue collapsed, taking about 200 38-pound concrete blocks from the side of the building with it, and crushing the blue Honda and three other parked vehicles. Anstey had already made it to the beach for his daily walk, and despite crowds lured by the first sunny morning in days, nobody was underneath when the overhang collapsed about 11:45 a.m. "It's a miracle nobody got hurt. We're fortunate," Anstey said. "If you don't believe in God, you will after that." The city is investigating whether the rain that soaked the area the past two days contributed to the collapse. The roof of the two-story Coop building was replaced last week, and the roofer, Silvers Systems, planned to return to replace the tile on the overhang. It was attached to the roof by 13 steel straps, and the city is investigating whether "they either rusted out or they were popped for the roofing," said Michael Knotek, the city's director of community services. "The structural integrity was just lacking," said local insurance agent Ron Holehouse, part owner of the building. Don and Julie MacNary, seasonal residents from Cape Cod, Mass., were watching sailboat races in the gulf from the building's beachfront, second-floor terrace when they heard the overhang fall from the Eighth Avenue side of the building. "I was praying, and I thought, 'Oh, please don't let anyone be in those cars,' " Julie MacNary said. The MacNarys and about a dozen other people lounging on the terrace peered around the corner at the damage. Meanwhile, Eighth Avenue merchants and shoppers, who rushed outside when they heard the collapse, screamed for them to get off the terrace. Those watching from the street feared a similar roof overhang on the gulffront side of the building could collapse onto the terrace. "Everyone on the street was saying, 'Go back! Go back! Get in the building!' " said Mary Alice Harley, who was working at A Little Room for Art on Eighth Avenue. Mary Falkenstein was on her way to pick up mail at the post office on Eighth Avenue when she saw the roof overhang give way. "I didn't know whether to cry or to scream," said Falkenstein, whose father, Bruno Reitano, built the Coop building, formerly the Keystone Restaurant & Bar, in the early 1950s. Falkenstein still operates the Keystone Motel across the street. It appears the collapse caused no structural damage to the Coop building, and Knotek said he plans to allow residents to return Sunday night. The building is home to a couple dozen people who live there at least part of the year. Eighth Avenue is the original main street for Pass-a-Grille, a remnant of the beach community's days as an independent city. Pass-a-Grille became part of St. Pete Beach more than 40 years ago. The Coop building is divided into several individually owned apartments and retail spaces. Holehouse and lawyer George Rahdert own some apartments and the retail areas, including Salon on the Grille, the Asado Cafe and an empty gulffront restaurant space. City officials say businesses in the Coop building should open as planned today. Emergency officials managed a busy scene Sunday afternoon as tourists gawked, many filming with video cameras brought on vacation. As the city trucks began hauling away glass and concrete, an estimated 300 bikers packed the one-block-long street to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Shadrack's bar next door. Shadrack's was not insulated from the trouble. One of the crushed cars, a 2001 Jeep Wrangler, belonged to the bar's owner, Jim Van Deilen. He had parked his car about 30 minutes earlier. "One fell swoop, just bang," Van Deilen said of the crash. "I didn't realize the magnitude of it." -- Times staff writer John Schwarb contributed to this story.
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From the Times South Pinellas desks |
