A 16-story apartment building in Ohio could reopen early next month, just weeks after it opened. temporarily closed after a deadly natural gas explosion that severely damaged an adjacent building.
Youngstown officials ordered the evacuation of the International Towers on June 10 after an engineering firm determined that the adjacent Realty Tower building was structurally unsafe and “on the verge of collapse.” Another building nearby, which houses the city’s only hotel, was also ordered to close.
City officials said this week that enough of the Realty Tower should be demolished by Aug. 2 and the two closed buildings could reopen that day. Demolition work on the Realty Tower is expected to begin next week, but officials said the work schedule is still flexible.
The Explosion on May 28 blew away a large portion of the ground floor of Realty Tower, killing a bank employee and injuring several others. A portion of the ground floor collapsed into the basement, sending the facade flying across the street. Bricks, glass and other debris were strewn across the sidewalk outside the 13-story building, which had a Chase Bank branch on the street level and apartments on the upper floors.
A crew working in the building’s basement intentionally cut a gas line without knowing it was pressurized, according to a preliminary finding by the National Transportation Safety Board. Investigators are still trying to determine why the line was pressurized.