DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) - The City of Decatur announced Martin Luther King Jr. Drive between Sangamon and Cerro Gordo Streets will remain closed until city deems safe.
The old Acme building, located at Wabash Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, started to collapse Tuesday, prompting a warning from authorities for the public to stay away. On Wednesday, crews began work to assess the building and which parts needed to come down.
WAND News caught the moment a wall was brought down on camera. The footage showed power lines shaking next to the structure.
At 4:40 p.m. Wednesday, the Ameren Illinois outage map showed 121 customers in the Decatur area did not have service.
After starting Tuesday, the collapse of the Acme building was a shock to Decatur officials and the owner. However, regular inspections of buildings in the city are not routine.
"We don't go around and do regular inspections of all structures within the city of Decatur. That would be the only real solution that would completely prevent this type of situation," said Jon Kindseth, Decatur's deputy city manager. "But I will say, I mean, even if you went by that building a week ago, it likely didn't look like it would have a failure."
Decatur city councilman David Horn said the city has talked about changing city code to make safety inspections mandatory on businesses that have a license and meet certain criteria.
"Older buildings, buildings that are taller and buildings that might be near railroad tracks may be a type of building that if we do issue licenses, that we also include life safety code inspections as part of that process," Horn said.
City leaders encourage all building owners to get routine inspections to make sure things are up to code.
The city does not have a vacant property registration for buildings such as the one that started to collapse.
Multiple roads are closed in the area as crews work on the building, including Wabash Avenue and MLK, along with Cerro Gordo Street. Kindseth said crews will not know how quickly the road can be reopened until they know how much of it needs to be removed.
