A section of Magazine Street in the Lower Garden District is closed after a building partially collapsed.
It happened just before 6 p.m. Monday at a two-story building near the intersection of Magazine Street, Hastings Place, and Felicity Street.
Witnesses said they heard a transformer blow immediately before the collapse. According to a nearby resident, rubble fell on a car, destroying it.
“I was laying down, and I saw this flash and heard a loud boom through my window,” Jamal Israel said, noting the boom was a thunderous roar. “I didn’t know what it was, so I rushed downstairs. I came out and the whole building was just gone. It exploded.”
New Orleans Fire Captain Quentin Brown says the building next to the one that collapsed caught fire earlier this year. However, he said investigators would have to determine if that fire led to Monday’s collapse.
“The fire department is keeping the area clear of pedestrian and vehicular traffic until further notice,” Brown said, adding that nobody was hurt in the collapse. “It appears to be a vacant building.”
Falling rubble destroyed two cars parked near the building.
Magazine Street near the site of the collapse is now open to traffic, with one lane of the road open.
This is the second building collapse in the city in the last three weeks. A building on O’Keefe Street near Girod collapsed, forcing authorities to close a section of that Central Business District street.
