KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A large sinkhole has caused a home in Kansas City, Mo., to dip six feet below ground. The sinkhole is so large the residents, as well as neighbors in the area, have been evacuated. On Friday morning, crews began demolishing the home.
“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” said Aaron, a man who lives near the home. He did not want to disclose his last name. “I don’t understand why the house would actually collapse if the foundation was inspected prior to them building a new property.”
Aaron said he came home and discovered an eviction notice, boxes on the porch and tape marking off the home.
Ray Herzog, code enforcement supervisor with dangerous buildings for the city, said he received a call on Tuesday from a contractor from the ownership group saying he needed to investigate.
“When they built this structure, for some reason, the foundation wasn’t what it needed to be to be able to hold this structure up,” he said.
It was his job to decide if it’s a dangerous building, so they could get a permit to demolish the structures. He said the decision was not difficult.
“Yeah it’s not standard for a house to fall six feet into the ground three years after being built,” he said.
He came on site and determined it was an emergency, and needed to take it down right away.
“There was a small crack that they were monitoring, and it was moving in between two and three inches every couple of days,” he said.
Records show the property was built in 2010, so it’s only about three years old. People living there moved out a little over a month ago with assistance from the Management Group. Neighbors say they weren’t so lucky.
“They said, ‘You guys get all your stuff and just leave,'” Aaron said. “One of the letters was saying if we didn’t move in three days, that we would be evicted. All this is happening so fast, I don’t know what we’re doing so, we’re probably on the street basically.”
The General Manager of Falcon Falls — Bernie Onelio — was out of town during the report, but e-mailed Fox Four’s Melissa Stern a statement. He says he offered the tenants options to move to a different townhouse and financial compensation, but that they have repeatedly rejected his offers. However, Falcon Fall is ready and prepared to accommodate them on these options.
At this point, Herzog says this home is not fixable. The contractor hired by the Ownership Group already has some equipment on site, and received a permit on Thursday to demolish the structure, which was beginning on Friday morning.
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