Alan McCormick of Garlington, Lohn and Robinson, the law firm representing Mercantile LLC, told Missoula City Council Monday night that the wall had been slated for removal. "Of course, they didn’t expect the wall would be removed quite in this fashion. It was always intended to be removed, but maybe not quite so quickly," he said, describing the incident as "a small mishap."

"While the photos you may have seen look pretty dramatic, the damage to the building extends only approximately three to four feet into the structure itself," he said.

Diehl said the incident "raised concern of the north wall collapsing, which would be the alley side facing the Uptown Diner. Because the condition of the brick — it’s in pretty bad shape — there was concern there might be some collapse.”

Diehl said crews consulted with the mason in charge of the site, as well as the construction superintendent and the demolition superintendent, and determined that the danger of collapse wasn’t imminent.