Sunday’s collapse of a vacant, three-story apartment building at 50 Vernon Street, which was being renovated to add a fourth floor, was likely caused by accumulating rain, snow and ice, according to the town’s top building official.
Building Commissioner Dan Bennett said in an interview that it will be difficult to determine the exact cause of the collapse, but he believes it was a “structural failure caused by the weather conditions.”
“I would suspect that the snow and ice contributed to weight, as did the rain, and there could have been enough frozen snow and ice that the water wasn’t draining and built up on the roof, causing or contributing to the failure,” Bennett said in an interview.
As of now, the Building Department is not pursuing any enforcement action against those involved with the construction, Bennett said.
“Once it collapsed, the evidence was gone,” Bennett said. “There was nothing for us to see to make that determination.”
The property’s insurance company is likely to conduct a more detailed investigation, he said.
Bennett said that a representative of the property’s owner has told him that they plan to resume the renovation once the building is stabilized and the town signs off.
When asked if the department will give extra scrutiny to the project next time around, Bennett said he feels his team “does a good job on all of our plan reviews and our enforcement.”
“We’ll look into it and see if there’s something we can do internally to be sure that this doesn’t happen again,” Bennett said. “I don’t think there’s a particular issue that we had on this job,but we’ll pay a little more attention on this specific one because of what happened.”
Meanwhile, the occupants of the three condominiums at 52 Vernon Street, which is attached to the building that collapsed, were still displaced on Thursday. The Brookline Fire Department had evacuated them on Sunday, shortly after the neighboring building fell. The town and contractor are particularly concerned that a shared wall between the two properties could be vulnerable after the collapse, Bennett said.
The residents of 52 Vernon Street are expected to be able to return to their homes by Feb. 28, Bennett said, once the project’s designer and engineers have created a “shoring plan” to secure the shared wall and the town has approved it.
On the scene Sunday, leaders from the Brookline Fire Department and Building Department examined the building and recommended that the project’s contractor take down several structures still standing that had been left insecure, including an unsupported parapet wall that was leaning in the wind. The contractor brought an excavator to the site and did so within a few hours, Bennett said.
The Boston Fire Department also provided a drone to examine the building from above and enter its basement. An MBTA bus sheltered residents of nearby buildings who had been evacuated.
The construction project at 50 Vernon Street, which involved renovating the building’s interior as well as adding a fourth floor, was in its early stages, Bennett said, and had followed the normal procedures. The contractor is Intelligent Design and Build, a Needham firm.
Before the collapse, Building Department officials had visited the site twice in recent months, Bennett said, once for a routine inspection of an elevator shaft and once to investigate a complaint about excess dust.
A building across an alley at 44 Vernon Street also suffered minor damage, according to Bennett.
In general, Bennett said that construction or renovation projects such as the one underway at the site are a “cooperative effort” that includes his department, the design team, and the general contractor.
“We’re not out there every day. We’re out there at certain periods or phases of construction. But the contractor is there every day, and if they have questions or concerns, we’re available to answer any questions,” he said. “These three parties work typically very well together and the projects run smooth. This was a kind of bump in the road, unfortunately.”
Neither the owner, 50 Vernon Street Development LLC, or the contractor could be reached for comment.