ST. LOUIS, Aug. 12 (Danielle Haynes) — No injuries were reported Wednesday when a five-story building in downtown St. Louis partially collapsed, leaving part of one side of the structure gaping open.
The building is home to a number of restaurants, including the Drunken Fish. Some of the upper floors were vacant and the top two were under renovation, authorities told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Bricks from the south face of the building crumbled to the ground and water from broken pipes was spraying down the side of the building, KTVI-TV in St. Louis reported. Though the incident didn’t cause damage to the nearby Metrolink station, it was closed to commuters.
Marco Cheatham, who works on the second floor of the building, escaped unharmed.
“I heard a loud rumbling and shaking,” he told the Post-Dispatch. “I looked out the window and saw a lot of smoke.”
Some 20 employees of the Drunken Fish restaurant were on the third floor in a meeting at the time. They all also made it out safe.
Officials were investigating the cause of the collapse.
