Possible quake link probed in building collapses
Friday, May 25, 2001
By CANDACE HECKMAN SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
City engineers are investigating whether February's earthquake is responsible for facades collapsing this week at a building in Fremont and another in the International District.
Brick-and-mortar overlays from a building on the corner of Fremont Avenue North and Fremont Place North at North 35th Street began peeling away from the structure at around midnight Wednesday.
At about 2 a.m. yesterday, a large portion of the wall and its parapets three stories up fell and destroyed the steel awning covering the sidewalk along Fremont Place North.
The bricks crushed cars that were parked on the sidewalk and a Seattle Weekly newspaper box.
No one was injured in the incident. That particular corner in Fremont is one of the busiest in the neighborhood.
Al Linden, a longtime neighborhood resident who owns a building across Fremont Avenue, said that it was lucky the collapse happened at a time when that sidewalk is usually deserted.
It was also fortunate that Lori Mason, owner of The Longshoreman's Daughter, had closed the restaurant early Wednesday night.
"At around midnight, we would've been in there" she said. "I've stayed up till 1 in the morning making ravioli filling."
She added that during the earthquake, workers and patrons ran outside into the street after the shaking started.
-- Anonymous, May 25, 2001