NEW ROCHELLE, NY (April 29, 2022) — The City of New Rochelle Building Department ordered an emergency demolition of the entire structure at 2 Hamilton Avenue in New Rochelle yesterday after the marquee on the Hamilton Avenue side of the building collapsed at about 6:15 a.m. Thursday. The marquee collapse pulled down the brick facade above the marquee, sending debris scattering in all directions on the sidewalk and road surface. There were no reports of injuries or property damage.
2 Hamilton Avenue was the scene of a fatal five alarm fire on March 31st, 2022. Judith Musameci, 60, of New Rochelle, NY died of apparent smoke inhalation, according to New Rochelle Police. Four firefighters were injured. The cause of the fire was determined to be electrical.
A demolition crew from Queen City Demolition & Recycling was on scene early Friday morning.
Fire Chief Andrew Sandor explained how the cantilevered marquee had only one attached to the building.
“All that weight has been sitting there stressing and eventually, what happens is…the marquee just came down and when it came down and took the top part of the wall out,” he said. “There was a debris field right from where that flew all the way right across from the median here, that was yesterday morning about six, 6:15.”
“It was just really unsafe, you know any pedestrian or anything, you know, and it totally comes without warning. And so, it’s probably not a bad move that they’re doing this emergency demolition.”
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