Large portion of fire-damaged Berkeley building falls.
The demolition of the Sequoia Building at 2441 Haste Street was temporarily halted after part of an exterior wall on Haste Street accidentally collapsed on Wednesday, causing a violation of the demolition permit. The result is that the building will now be taken down to a lower height than originally planned.
Kenneth Ent, the owner of the building, which suffered a devastating fire on November 18th, was issued a revised permit on Thursday which allows the demolition to take the storefront wall on Telegraph Avenue to a height no higher than 20 ft, while a small portion of the Haste Street exterior wall will be 15 ft. The west and north walls, as well as the interior of the building, are all set to be completely demolished, as per the first permit.
“There is lots of weakness in the brick building which is not possible to predict,” said Berkeley City spokesperson Mary Kay Clunies-Ross. “There has to be some flexibility given the safety issues.”
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