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Snow to blame for SE building collapse, fire inspector says

But a neighbor blames DCRA for not acting on her earlier warnings about the building's deteriorating condition.

WASHINGTON — For Denise Krepp, Sunday night's building collapse is personal: she lives just a few doors away on A Street Southeast. The District 6B advisory neighborhood commissioner said she had seen the property's condition declining over the last six months. 

"In mid-December, there was a DCRA (Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs) inspector for another property on the street and I said, 'hey, let’s go look at this property,'" Krepp said. "The windows were open, the doors were open and they were just completely in disrepair." 

DCRA inspection reports show its last inspection of the A Street building was last August.

WUSA9 reached out to DCRA, D.C.’s agency responsible for building safety and inspection, for a response to Krepp's story. 

“We are still gathering information and will address the issue as soon as we can do so effectively," DCRA said in an email. 

If that answer sounds familiar, it's because DCRA says it is still investigating what caused another building collapse last July that injured a construction worker on Kennedy Street Northwest.

RELATED: Victim who survived DC building collapse has surgery on his spine, cannot feel from the knee down

On Monday, WUSA9 witnessed DC Fire Inspectors taping danger signs to the building. Our reporter was offered this explanation for what caused the collapse:

“The snow and ice did it,” Fire Inspector Niggora Moye Sr. said. 

Credit: Becca Knier
DC Fire Inspectors at A St SE, DC

Fire inspectors talked to a contracting manager who agreed with that assessment. 

“We haven’t actually done much to the building except for that interior demo," said Hamid Shirazi with Fatis Properties, LLC, one of the partners to the building developer. "We were waiting on DCRA to give the appropriate construction permits since April."

Credit: Becca Knier
Demolition workers clear out rubble after the A Street SE building collapse

RELATED: Here’s a look at the recent inspection history of DC condo building that collapsed

Shirazi denied that the building's roof was exposed to the elements, and added he wasn’t alerted to any openings in windows or doors.

Credit: Becca Knier
The roof collapse at 1819 A Street SE, DC


"I’m pissed," Krepp said. "I am so angry right now that I had to watch people in frigid weather carry cat boxes at 9:30 at night and be told they had to leave their house because DCRA can’t get its act together to clean up a property."

Neighbors living next door say this collapse could have been a lot worse, adding they’ve witnessed children skipping school, hanging out in the now-collapsed house. They said they were thankful this happened at night and not during the day, when those kids are around. 

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