Jacksonville building partially collapses at Main and 14th streets

An abandoned building partially collapsed in the 2300 block of North Main Street near East 14th Street, shutting down the area.

The road is closed in both directions, the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department posted at 5:32 p.m. on X, formerly known as Twitter.

No injuries have been reported at this time, but a large portion collapsed on what appears to be a warehouse with graffiti on it. It also says Soloomon’s on the side. People are advised to avoid the area.

The fire department is bringing in a rescue dog to search for possible victims, but Chief Keith Powers said first responders didn’t see any early indications there were.

“But as you can see from the way the building is leaning, there’s some concern that the rest of the building may collapse into Main Street,” Powers said. “So right now we have municipal code compliance that’s on the way out here, and they’ll make a determination on what the steps are going forward, probably with the city engineer, looking at it to determine if the building needs to come down tonight or it can wait until in the morning.”

He said they were unclear about the cause at this stage.

“What the drone shows us from above, it looks like a lot of the roof structure had rotted and already collapsed,” the chief. “And when you get that, then you don’t have a lot of stability in the walls, so it doesn’t take a lot of wind or anything else to push that down.”

Powers said the largest pile of debris fell onto Main, but there’s debris across to the other side of the street and they can’t take any chances.

“So we’ll keep it closed until they render the building safe,” he said.

(This story has been updated with new details.)

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Abandoned Jacksonville building partially collapses on N Main St.