A vacant building's front wall crumbled onto the sidewalk and the roof of the building next door caved in Thursday afternoon on Kansas City's east side, but no one was hurt in either collapse. Fire crews were called to the 5100 block of East 27th Street shortly after 3:30 p.m. to find the damage already done.
No one was injured following the structure collapse, according to KMBC, which reported that the front wall of a vacant building had fallen into the sidewalk while the roof of an adjoining building also gave way. The Kansas City Fire Department's Rescue Division is now investigating what triggered the dual collapse.
A fire department spokesperson told the outlet that crews had responded to fires at both locations before Thursday's incident, though the station's report does not draw a direct line between those earlier fires and the collapse. The cause of Thursday's structural failure has not been determined.
A City Wrestling With Hundreds of Dangerous Buildings
Thursday's collapse lands in the middle of a broader reckoning over Kansas City's aging, vacant housing stock. Hundreds of buildings across Kansas City, Missouri, are vacant, boarded up and considered dangerous, according to KSHB. The city's dangerous buildings program, as described by the Kansas City government, notes that such buildings vary widely in the type and severity of damage but consistently pose the greatest risk to the people and properties around them.
Past reporting from KCUR found that a majority of the city's dangerous buildings, both commercial and residential, were concentrated in ZIP codes east of Troost Avenue, and that more than 100 dangerous-building cases were opened in a single year. In response to the scale of the problem, Kansas City's City Council has proposed three ordinances aimed at dangerous, blighted buildings and the owners who let them deteriorate, per KSHB's reporting.
Proposed Rules Would Target Owners of Empty Structures
One of the proposed ordinances would set minimum maintenance standards for any building left vacant for more than 90 days, while another would require owners to formally register empty structures within that same window, according to the same KSHB account. Owners who rack up multiple violations could face a $200 fee for what the city classifies as a chronic nuisance property.
It is not clear whether either building involved in Thursday's collapse was among those flagged under the city's existing dangerous buildings list or would fall under the proposed registration rules. The fire department has not released further details on the addresses, ownership or occupancy status of either structure beyond their general location on East 27th Street.
Not an Isolated Incident in Kansas City
Partial building collapses have become a recurring hazard across Kansas City in recent years. A building at 3902 Woodland partially collapsed after bricks began falling onto the sidewalk, and the city ultimately demolished the structure after declaring it dangerous, Fox 4 Kansas City reported. In another incident downtown, a building near 13th and Wyandotte streets partially collapsed, shutting down nearby streets and sidewalks, with the Hyatt reporting no guest or colleague injuries from that collapse, according to the same station's coverage.
Fire crews have also responded to a partial roof collapse at a residence elsewhere in Kansas City, Missouri, where occupants managed to evacuate before crews arrived and no injuries were reported, per KSHB. Thursday's incident on East 27th Street follows that same pattern so far: significant structural damage, but no one hurt. The Kansas City Fire Department's Rescue Division has not yet said when its investigation into the cause will conclude.
