Businesses were forced to shut for over six hours while officials checked the building’s safety, reports Marco Marcelline
A building in Walthamstow High Street was cordoned off today (30th September) by emergency services after dozens of bricks fell from its roof.
Nazeer Dawlatzai, who works at ForestEco Cleaners at 185 Walthamstow High Street, had already set up when he heard what he says sounded like “rain” falling hard on the road just after 9am.
The 32-year-old then realised bricks had fallen from the roof of the building next door, which alongside flats, houses several businesses including an eyelash and nail beauty shop, a bubble tea cafe, and a luggage shop.
Nazeer counted around “20” bricks that had fallen onto the ground. He added that it was “lucky” that nobody had been walking past the building when the incident happened.
Police cordoned off the building, as well as much of the pavement immediately outside it, shortly after the incident was first reported to them.
A policewoman at the scene this afternoon told the Echo that the London Fire Brigade (LFB) had attended the scene. She added that Waltham Forest Council had conducted a safety inspection of the building before deciding it was fine to reopen at just after 4pm today.
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The LFB and the council were contacted for comment.
On a visit to the scene, the Echo noted that a stack of around twelve bricks were piled up next to a bin opposite the building while remnants of smashed bricks were on the pavement.
In December 2023, a construction worker from India was killed in a Leytonstone roof collapse.
Ekarmanjeet Singh, from the city of Gurdaspur in the Punjab, India was working as a roofer on a house renovation on Pevensey Road, when the roof collapsed on top of him.
He was found trapped under rubble by firefighters attending the end-of-terraced house shortly after 5pm on 12th December.
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