Cedar Rapids tenants evacuated after car ‘severely’ damages apartment building

CEDAR RAPIDS — Tenants in the Country Club View apartments were evacuated Thursday afternoon when a vehicle crashed into a corner of the building, leaving fire crews to temporarily shore up the building to rescue the driver and keep the building from giving way.

Authorities said the driver of the car that struck the building, who was not identified, was injured. They did not say what led the driver to crash into the structure, where the vehicle severely damaged the southwest corner of the building, striking a load-bearing wall, and became partially lodged in an apartment.

  Buy Photo

Fire crews were called about 12:30 p.m. Thursday to the 300 block of 29th Street Drive SE on a call about the accident.

“The building damage required additional fire crews to build temporary interior shoring to keep further structural damage from taking place and to remove the vehicle that was still partially inside the building,” the Cedar Rapids Fire Department said in a news release.

Crews evacuated tenants and turned the building over to the Cedar Rapids Building Department to work with the apartment management company to make repairs.

The city will work with the property managers and occupants of the building to expedite a construction permit for repairs, Duncan McCallum, Building Services Manager for the city of Cedar Rapids, said in a statement to The Gazette on Friday.

The city will work with contractors to oversee the repairs and ensure the building is up to code once a permit is issued for the construction, he said.

The Cedar Rapids Building Services Department confirmed that the occupants of the damaged apartment were evacuated until repairs can be completed.

The Gazette was unable to confirm with the property manager if other occupants were allowed to remain in the building while repairs are made to the load-bearing wall that was damaged on Thursday.

Police indicated they are continuing to investigate the incident and have not released any further information regarding the crash.

Spire Property Management, the property manager of the Country Club View apartments that were struck in this incident, could not be reached for immediate comment on Friday.