A building in Westchester County partially collapsed Monday when a boulder crashed into a business after a rockslide.
The incident happened overnight sometime before 7 a.m. at Peterson Tool Rental in Yonkers and caused a shutdown of Saw Mill River Road in both directions while emergency crews worked the scene. The boulder caused significant damage to the two-story building but no injuries were reported.
“The building was unoccupied at the time, thank God,” Yonkers Deputy Chief of Fire Prevention Chris DeSantis told CBS New York. “If it occurred during the day, that area of the building is normally occupied by a number of workers. So, luckily, it happened at night while the building was unoccupied.”
The part of the building that collapsed contained construction vehicles and a 500-gallon heating oil tank. Some fuel from the tank leaked and led to a precautionary hazmat situation, but crews are working to clean the spill and keep it out of storm drains.
Yonkers Deputy Fire Chief Chris Canfield said the damage was caused by a mudslide after some rain.
“There’s some rock walls and I guess with all the rain, it had a little bit of a mudslide on the lower portion of the wall,” Canfield told News 12. “It looks like there’s a pretty big boulder in the back that slipped off the front of the face and into the exterior portion of the building which caused the collapse.”
Officials said at least some of the building was irrevocably destroyed and the entire structure may ultimately be lost. It’s been condemned for the time being and will need to remove debris before a structural engineer can evaluate the building.
Peterson Tool Rental is a family business that opened in 1953.
