JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – As fire crews battle continue to battle hot spots that keep popping up at the RISE Doro apartments on Tuesday, officials have brought up the possibility of demolition due to collapse concerns at the Downtown apartment complex.
The devastating fire, which has been burning since Sunday night, has left the brand-new luxury apartment building unsafe. City engineers determined that the building is no longer structurally sound.
On Tuesday morning, Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department Chief Keith Powers said some of the parapet walls around the top of the building collapsed inward. He also pointed out that on Monday evening, there was a blowout on the back corner by Lafayette Street, causing part of the back wall to partially bow out.
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For that reason, several businesses around the building will have to remain closed until they decide to demolish the building or once they make sure the building will not collapse onto the street.
“As far as business closures, unfortunately, Intuition Ale Works, Manifest Distilling and the offices across A. Phillip Randolph Boulevard also are in the collapse zone,” Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan said.
— Intuition Ale Works (@IntuitionAle) January 30, 2024
During a press conference Monday evening, Deegan said public safety is their number one priority.
“As soon as we can do it, the wood framing in that building will be coming down,” Deegan said.
Structural engineers have determined at least part of the building if not all of it will need to be demolished. Now, the very delicate process of demolishing the building will have to be planned out.
Powers said engineers will be working with the building owners to determine what the next steps are to make that building safe for the community.
“That’s about an 80-feet-high building and the height of that building all the way out, 80 feet away from the building is a collapse zone,” Powers said.
Greg Davis, who owns Garbageman.com a company that handles demolition projects, said the first thing will be getting the okay from structural engineers that the building can come down.
“It’s going to be a textbook case of a large fire. What we’re going to see is a lot of inspectors are going to go in and engineers over the next week or so and what they’re going to do is determine how bad the damage is,” Davis said.
Then, he said if the order is given to demolish the huge apartment complex, or a portion of it, crews will take it down section by section.
“Once they deem how they can take it down what will happen is they’ll have a team of excavators take it down piece by piece,” Davis said.
Davis also said demolition will likely happen with excavators and would not require an implosion just like the one at the old City Hall Annex a few years ago. He said this building is not that tall, and they wouldn’t need to go to that extent.
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In the meantime, Powers said the building will probably be surrounded by JFRD crews for days as they continue to pour thousands of gallons of water on the building to control the hot spots.
RISE President and Chief Financial Officer Greg Blais confirmed that the complex was insured and stated he’s not opposed to rebuilding.
“We absolutely want to see a rebuild happen,” Blais said.
RISE expressed gratitude for the firefighters’ hard work.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the firefighters, first responders, and their families who have been committed to the safety of our community. We are thankful for their quick and ongoing response to the situation,” the company said in a statement on its website.