Afternoon Rains Cave In Roof At Somerville Auto Body Shop - CBS Boston

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SOMERVILLE (CBS) – A roof collapsed at a Somerville auto body shop on Medford Street in the middle of Wednesday afternoon’s storms.

The roof of A-Plus Auto Body caved in on all of the cars that were inside being worked on.

A roof collapsed at a Somerville auto body shop on Medford Street in the middle of Wednesday afternoon’s storms. (WBZ-TV)

A blocked drain trapped water on the flat roof of the 100-year-old building when an 85- by 50-foot section of the roof came crashing down.

Somerville’s deputy fire chief said that the weight of the rainwater on an old, flat roof likely triggered the collapse. He said there were structural issues with the building as well and “multiple things” contributed to the roof’s collapse.

One of the shopowners said he wondered if the excavation for the new Green Line extension behind his building contributed to the accident. “It’s an old building. I mean, there was a lot of water,” he said. “They been digging in the back because they’re doing their Green Line project, so I don’t know.”

There were five or six workers at the shop, but no one was hurt. Many of the workers were in the office part of the shop at the time, getting ready to go home, and the roof collapsed over the body shop itself.

“Just looked over, saw my guys there, and I was good,” said the other shopowner.

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City engineers are still structurally assessing the building. It appears that much of the building will need to be torn down.

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