The five remaining city residents displaced by a wall collapse at a construction site a week-and-a-half ago returned home earlier this week, Bayonne Fire Chief Keith Weaver said.
BAYONNE -- The five remaining city residents displaced by a wall collapse at a construction site a week-and-a-half ago returned home earlier this week, Bayonne Fire Chief Keith Weaver said.
The April 3 collapse -- which happened at 302-304 Broadway, where a five-story residential complex is being built by Skye Development LLC -- occurred amid blustery wind conditions that wreaked havoc across the state.
In the incident's immediate aftermath, 23 residents in the surrounding neighborhood were displaced; 17 returned home within a few days and the remaining five returned home on Sunday, Weaver said on Tuesday.
The remaining five residents were delayed from returning home because a portion of the wall was still being evaluated by structural engineers to ensure it wasn't in danger of collapsing, the fire chief said.
"The wall was removed to a safe level and reinforced and braced over the weekend," Weaver said. "The building department OK'ed the surrounding area, and rendered (it) safe."
He has previously said no one was injured in the incident, and that the only property damage reported was "minimal damage" done to the adult daycare next to the development.
The daycare, which had been closed since the collapse, resumed normal operations on Monday afternoon, the fire chief said.
Developer Mitchell Burakovsky told The Jersey Journal at the active construction site this afternoon that all safety issues have been addressed and that work is moving forward.
"We solved all the problems at the site, and the building department, the fire department, the police department cleared our project on Monday night. And now we're looking forward to moving forward and finishing the building," he said.
A representative for Skye Development previously called the incident "an act of God."
Weaver said today that he doesn't know the cause of the collapse, but noted that "high winds at the time of the incident probably played a role."
Jonathan Lin may be reached at jlin@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @jlin_jj. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.