ALBION, N.Y. (WKBW) — A roof collapse displaced more than a dozen residents and three storefronts in Albion on Tuesday, but no one was injured because the building’s top floor was required to be empty.
A 40-foot-by-40-foot portion of the roof collapsed at a mixed-use building on East Bank Street, according to village officials.
The three-story building at 20 East Bank Street houses Pastor Calvin Wynn's Full Gospel Tabernacle Church and two other storefronts on the ground level, with about 15 people living in second-floor apartments.
Everybody inside the building made it outside safely, but all residents and businesses have been displaced following the incident.
"The roof collapsed like a pancake, which means it dropped straight down and did not pull from the sides of the walls, so it doesn't look like there's any structural damage," Albion Code Officer Chris Kinter said.
The collapse caused water damage in three apartments and two storefronts, as a result of the snow and ice that was on the roof.
However, the roof did not break into the second-floor apartments where residents lived. No injuries occurred because the third floor of the building was legally required to remain vacant.
WATCH: 'Nobody got hurt, thank God': Albion roof collapse displaces 15 residents and multiple storefronts
"Unless you have a sprinkler system in place on your third floor, nobody can occupy that, nobody can live there," Mayor Angel Javier Jr. said.
“So, I mean, there is storage and stuff like that up there, but it’s not habitable space,” Kinter said.
"Nobody got hurt, thank God… The biggest blessing is that everybody is safe. After that, things can be replaced,” Wynn said. "We will have church, but we may not have it here."
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