Features

Soft story collapse 

The occupant of a home at 1519 Oregon St. got a first-hand lesson in the dangers of soft-story housing at 11:30 Sunday evening when somebody dropped the house out from under him. 

The second floor resident, who lives above a garage and workspace, managed to escape the incident unharmed, said Deputy Fire Chief David P. Orth. 

Soft story buildings—structures with housing above open spaces like garages—lack sufficient support to make them earthquake worthy. The city is currently considering legislation about what steps to take to make owners of such properties render them safer for residents. 

“A bearing wall that was being worked on collapsed,” said Orth. The construction had been undertaken without a building permit, he added. 

When the building collapsed, the remains lay against the side of a neighboring residence, causing the fire department to red tag both structures, with the fate of the neighboring house pending an evaluation of possible structural damage caused by the collapse. 

The collapse did remove at least one unit from the city’s list of soft story buildings. 

Cycle goof 

Rule number one for motorcyclists: Don’t park it in a closed space near a gas water heater. 

The occupant of a residence in the 1600 block of Kains Street learned the lesson the hard way Sunday afternoon when gas fumes from the two-wheeler made contact with the flames from the nearby basement water heater. 

Firefighters quickly contained the fire, limiting the structural damage to $10,000 and damage to the contents—including the cycle—estimated at $5,000.