A vacant, four-story building partially collapsed in downtown Lancaster during Wednesday morning's rush hour.
Crews continued working at the site late Wednesday after using a crane to demolish a portion of the building determined to be unsafe. About half the building remained after a day filled with lots of drama but no serious injuries.
Some of the falling bricks and other debris from the former Empire TV & Appliance building in the second block of North Queen Street struck a passing Red Rose Transit Authority bus during the 7:39 a.m. collapse, shattering its front window.
Four of the 10 people on the bus were treated for minor injuries, emergency officials said.
Those were believed to be the only injuries caused by a building that toppled alongside a bustling street as commuter traffic streamed through the city.
VIDEO: Demolition begins late Wednesday
VIDEO: Scene of North Queen Street building collapse
SLIDESHOW: Building collapses on North Queen Street
"I think if there is any bright side to this, we can thank goodness that there were only minor injuries," Mayor Rick Gray said.
The collapse of the building, owned by the Lancaster Museum of Art, shook the entire block and raised a cloud of red dust. It was a surreal sight for one witness.
"A bus was moving straight toward falling bricks and concrete bricks, said Neil Booth, 24, of the 100 block of East Walnut Street. "It hit the bus smack in the middle of the top of the bus.
"I stopped in my tracks."
The cause of the collapse was unknown Wednesday. Construction crews have been working in a large hole dug on a vacant lot next to the building for months. They are building a 395-space parking garage for RRTA.
Workers were in the earthen pit when the building toppled, a witness said, but managed to scramble out.
About a quarter of the building collapsed, along a large crack that had formed from the top to the bottom. A second crack then appeared, widening as the day progressed. It was that crack that marked the stopping point for the demolition.
Demolition of the damaged portion of the building was completed by 8:30 p.m. Wednesday. However, city police Sgt. Kevin Fry said crews were expected to work well into the night and possibly into the morning, cleaning up the area.
He said work at the site was going slowly.
The collapse caused major traffic delays in the city as emergency crews closed parts of Queen and Chestnut streets, two main travel routes through the city.
Fry said the first blocks of East and West Chestnut streets, the 100 and 200 blocks of North Queen Street and the 200 block of North Christian Street were expected to remain closed all night and possibly into the morning.
By noon, a 190-foot crane had arrived from Berks County. to help with the demolition. Construction workers used it to survey the roof of an adjacent three-story building, which houses apartments and the Fries Flowers shop on the ground floor.
At mid-afternoon, a track hoe arrived and its large metal jaws demolished the remaining portion of the partially collapsed building.
The building at 215 N. Queen St. was insured for $1.5 million, according to a Lancaster Museum of Art official. The building was empty, except for some furniture and books.
The museum had been planning to move from its home in the Grubb Street Mansion on North Lime Street into the North Queen Street building. Financial considerations, however, caused it to abandon those plans earlier this year.
The museum put the building on the real-estate market in February. The asking price was $650,000.
The building's collapse stunned residents of the adjacent apartment building, and witnesses.
Courtney Wachter, 33, who lives on the top floor of the apartment building, said, "I heard a loud noise, then the building started to sway and shake for about 30 seconds. I questioned: Was it an earthquake?"
The collapse drew a large crowd of emergency workers, city officials, city residents and curious onlookers, who snapped pictures with their cell phones and gawked at the ruined building. Some even congregated on the roof of the nearby Duke Street garage.
There was a lot to see.
Much of the debris fell straight down inside the building, leaving about a one-story pile of bricks, wood and other rubble along North Queen Street.
Part of the building had toppled over on a streetside tree, knocking off its branches and leaving a hulking, jagged trunk that looked like a pile of matchsticks.
Piles of bricks were strewn beside the bus, which had pulled to a stop in mid-swerve.
Dust covered the bus, the street and a red car parked across the street.
Reportedly, the bus driver, after being checked for scrapes, hopped on another bus and completed his work day.
Emergency crews quickly converged on the scene. Water and natural gas crews checked for leaks and, along with a crew from PPL, remained there throughout the demolition.
Millersville Fire Company brought certified live scent search dogs. One black dog climbed the pile of rubble, walking through it to ensure no one had gotten trapped.
Later in the morning, two backhoe operators began removing rubble from the front of the building.
Stanley Grand, executive director of Lancaster Museum of Art, watched the demolition of the building.
He said it might be easier to sell as a vacant lot.
"If they take the entire building down, it's a significant chunk of real estate," he said.
The art museum was to have been part of RRTA's $17 million project at Queen and Chestnut streets. That project includes an expanded bus station and parking garage.
Despite the collapse, the project will continue to move forward, said RRTA executive director David Kilmer.
Jim Radwanski, chief executive officer of Perrotto Builders, the RRTA project's builder, said his company was building "mini-piles" that would support the foundation of the parking garage at the time of the collapse.
Mar-Allen Concrete Products of Ephrata had put reinforcing steel and concrete at the base of the Art Museum building to reinforce it, he said.
"That's how the design was," Radwanski said.
He said an investigation would be completed to determine the cause of the collapse.
"We can't really say too much about it because we don't know," he said late Wednesday afternoon. "Now, we will take that building down as safely as possible."
As the track hoe scraped away the four courses of brick that comprised the building's north wall, a crack opened behind the façade of the attached building at 217 N. Queen St.
The demolition proceeded slowly to prevent further damage to the building.
Radwanski said the crack could be repaired and the building would still be structurally sound.
The building was constructed in 1911. It was built with four courses of brick in its walls at a time when locomotives rumbled past on their way to city's train station next door. The train station remained at Queen and Chestnut streets until the present station on McGovern Avenue was built in 1929.
RRTA detoured its buses, which use a terminal in the same block as the collapsed building.
The Lancaster County commissioners canceled their weekly, public meeting because of the collapse.
The commissioners meet on the seventh floor of the county administration building at 150 N. Queen St., less than 100 yards from the collapsed building.
Commissioners chairman Scott Martin said the board canceled the meeting so commissioners could provide any assistance needed by emergency responders and engineers working at the scene of the collapse.
Staff Writers P.J. Reilly, Ryan Robinson and Jenn Todd contributed to this report.
