Building Collapses in Fayette

Heavy snow collapsed a building on the square in Fayette Tuesday afternoon. Clean up will require Route 240/Church Street to be closed for several days. MoDOT crews have put up detour signs in the area.The roof caved-in around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday at 116 Church Street, between Davis and Morrison. The remaining walls will start to come down once an engineer clears the building and checks the structures next door.The apartments on this second floor were vacant when the roof came down.Fayette and Howard County fire crews spent a couple hours Tuesday evening checking the roofs of every other building along the square. Howard County fire chief Kyle Conrow told ABC 17 News the flat roofs of the buildings were all in danger because of the heavy snow. No structural threats were found.Neighboring second floor apartments were evacuated immediately after the collapse so that crews could check the structures. One neighbor said the collapse shook the entire block and sounded like a low rumbling.EO Recycles is on the first floor of 116 Church Street, which employes mentally challenged workers to sort recycling collected in Howard County. Organizers now have to scramble to find a new home. Leremie Shaffer told ABC 17 News the organization was in the middle of an expansion, with the addition of New Franklin’s recycling, to start on March 1. EO Recycles will now have to move back into a space about 1/16th the size of the damaged building.Luckily, no one was injured in the collapse. Emergency crews said the second floor mostly fell to the side and out front, instead of falling down onto the first floor. Neighboring building, 118 Church Street, was also destroyed.