Advertisement Everyone OK after century-old KC church collapse Engineers to determine whether building can be salvaged Share Shares Copy Link Copy

Another section of a northeast Kansas City church collapsed Thursday, hours after a significant collapse earlier in the day.Click here for images of the collapse Kansas City firefighters were called to Independence Avenue and Benton Boulevard at 10:35 a.m.The east side of the 113-year-old building gave out.The building is home to the Apostolic Assembly Church. Children at a day care facility were inside, but everyone safely escaped.The Rev. Hermino C. Leal said the part of the building that collapsed housed the sanctuary. He said children were in it earlier in the morning."Three quarters of the building fell down this morning," he said. "We pray, we cry because it's our church."A surveillance camera at a store across the street caught images of the collapse and the people rushing to get out of the building."I heard something. A loud boom. I thought it was a fire because of all the smoke," said neighbor Anthony Mitchell. "I guess that's because of the bricks that were falling."Parents were asked to pick up their children at Independence Boulevard Christian Church at 606 Gladstone Blvd.Authorities closed some streets in the area because the building was unstable. Structural engineers were examining the building to determine what happened.Neighbor Douglas Warren works on buildings and said he's not surprised."When you don't have proper guttering on the roof or proper roofing, this is what happens to the building," he said.KMBC 9's Micheal Mahoney reported that four hours later, another significant portion of the building fell. No injuries were reported.Storms moved through Kansas City Wednesday night, bringing some heavy rain at times. It was not yet known if the recent weather contributed to the structure's failure.Kansas City officials said the building was not on a list of dangerous structures. The fire department inspected the roof from a hook and ladder bucket and said that while the rest of the building didn't appear to be in bad shape, more of the back of the building may have to be torn down to stabilize it.Engineers and the insurance company will ultimately have to decide whether the entire building needs to be torn down. The building has had a long history, operating for many years as a movie theater before it was remodeled as a church in the early 1970s."The outside structure was good. I thought, anyway," said former owner Charles Little. "But there was always stuff. The roof leaked for like, 17 years. So I was always repairing it and that."Emergency crews who were caught in the dust of the old building were given medical attention as a precaution.11833402