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Roof Collapse In Quincy Causes Traffic Delays

QUINCY (CBS) -- A large portion of a roof collapsed on Hancock Street in Quincy and caused problems for commuters Monday morning.

The building commissioner, Jay Duca, believes it was a distressed parapet on the front of the building that caused the collapse. What is left of the 40-foot section of roof is now rubble in front of a nail salon.

"It's crazy, it's still crazy it's collapsing I've been watching it," said Nicole Todd who works at Diamond Dental.

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A roof collapsed on Hancock Street in Quincy Monday morning (Photo Courtesy: Quincy Police)

The Quincy fire department got the call just after 7:30 Monday morning for a roof collapse, and because of the morning commute, they feared the worst.

"There's usually heavy foot traffic there's a bus stop right around the corner, of course we have the donut shop we usually have cars parked so fortunately right now no injuries," Chief Gary Smyth said.

Todd has worked Diamond Dental for four years now, just three doors down from the nail salon and would be coffee and sandwich shop that was about to open.

"It's an old building but no just a few leaks here and there but they fix it," she said.

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Debris covers the sidewalk on Hancock Street in Quincy after a roof collapse (Photo Courtesy: Peter Doherty)

Now, the fire chief says at least the facade of the building has to come down.

"They told me I can't get into it, waiting for it to fall," Todd added.

As of now, none of the businesses knows the future of the building. "There's eight storefronts. Eight stores are affected and no one will be allowed in the building we have a long haul here," Smyth said.

Duca says the building owner has hired an engineer to make sure the rest of the building is safe and to rebuild the front facade.

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