Building collapsed while being made 'safe'

A blue plaque building once home to troubled poet in Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, collapsed moments after a structural engineer on a cherry picker prodded at an exposed beam and bricks near to the roof.

Police were called out to the property on Stamford Street Central at 7.30am on Thursday following reports of falling bricks and debris. Officers quickly decided to cordon off the two-storey building and close a section of the road after it appeared the building had bowed and was in imminent danger of collapse.

Structural engineers from the local authority were called out to make an assessment. Eye-witnesses described how a man who was standing on the cradle of a cherry picker had just removed a single brick when it came down .

YouTube link.

“He was up there trying to make it safe and he obviously took out the wrong brick. The whole lot came down with a loud rumble,” said the witness. A blue plaque mounted on the front of the building marks the fact it was once home to poet Francis Thompson who lived there between 1864 and 1885.