Bricks crumble off McKeesport office building near daycare

Bricks tumbled to the street in McKeesport on Monday from a pilaster on an office building on Fifth Avenue.

The column on the back of the building collapsed, although no one was inside when it happened. Some of the bricks even landed in an empty lot across the street.

McKeesport Mayor Michael Chereko shut down nearby roads to make sure everyone is safe, just in case more bricks come down.

“One of our police officers on patrol looked over and saw that the bricks came down,” he said. "We had a collapse of one of the pilasters made of brick here on the facade of the Executive Building."

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Even more concerning – the fact that a daycare is next door

“I saw the bricks on the ground and the tape saying not to enter,” said Tashia Lawrence, whose children attend Don’t Worry Childhood Center. Her kids are safe, she said.

Only Channel 11 was there as a contractor checked things out Monday. We learned the building is used for office space, but it’s been  empty since last year.

Cherepko showed Channel 11 what went wrong.

“They saw a crack in the mortar of the bricks that were on the outside of the building,” he said. “We are assuming it had something to do with the extremely cold temperatures that we've been dealing with over the last week.”

“It's scary, but then it could happen to any of the other businesses here,” Lawrence said. “But I’m glad it didn't happen to the daycare. I'm just glad they caught it in time before it got too bad.”

Channel 11 contacted the owner, who lives in New Jersey. He’s working on getting a contractor out here to fix the problem.

In the meantime, part of Fifth Avenue is shut down as well as Ringgold Street.

Cox Media Group