A building has collapsed in downtown Portsmouth.
It all went down just after midnight Sunday morning at 524 2nd Street. According to emergency personnel, nearby bar-goers heard “booms” and found a few bricks outside on the sidewalk. Police could see cracking in the building and sectioned off the sidewalk nearby.
However, about two hours later the entire front of the building fell to the street below revealing all three stories inside.
No injuries were reported and the building and its neighboring properties were empty at the time of the collapse. AEP and the gas company responded and turned off the utilities to the area while the fire department shut down 2nd Street entirely.
No word on what caused the collapse. Property records show the building is more than 130 years old.
