Boston

Crews Respond to East Boston Partial Building Collapse

A building at 4 Winthrop Street in East Boston is set to be demolished after a partial collapse on Sunday.

The four-story brick building was unoccupied at the time of the collapse, according to the Boston Fire Department.

Firefighters shut off water and gas after leaks were found near the damage. The area was blocked off in fear of more debris falling.

Grace Magoon was at a nearby law office in East Boston and says she felt the shaking.

"I felt an explosion and it kept coming," Magoon said. "You're close to the airport, God forbid, you think of an airplane and that’s what it sounded like."

Stepping outside, Magoon realized the unoccupied building on Winthrop Street was falling. Bricks from the corner of the residential building fell onto a plaza, damaging the back of the law offices.

Danilo Avalon owns the office.

"Our folks were fortunate it happened on a Sunday and not a weekday when people would have been in my office in that back area."

Twenty-eight residents were evacuated from Maverick Street as a precaution. Representatives were on the scene to assist with those displaced until the building can be safely demolished.

There are no reported injuries.

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