No injuries as strong winds and rain rip bricks from Capitol Hill apartment building

(Image: CHS)

(Image: CHS)

A crumbling facade sent dozens of bricks tumbling to the ground from a 99-year-old Capitol Hill apartment building on a rainy night with gusty winds above 45 MPH in the city.

The burst of blustery weather is forecast to taper off with cold and rain settling in. There might even be a little snow in Seattle.

There were no reported injuries in the Wednesday night incident in which an upper layer of bricks seemingly peeled off the Malden Apartments at E Harrison and Malden just off 15th Ave E  around 10:30 PM. Video from the scene showed the initial extent of the damage.

Seattle Police taped off the area and left the scene, leaving E Harrison closed just west of 15th. It’s not clear if the building needed to be fully evacuated as of Thursday morning.

The building is listed by the county as dating to 1907. In 1984, the county records a major overhaul for the old 24-unit building. The bricks falling from the Malden Apartments tumbled from the top of the three-story structure’s south face.

The building does not appear on the city’s list of seismically vulnerable Unreinforced Masonry structures.

Other damage in the areas around Capitol Hill was limited to downed trees and wires. Wires were reported down at 11th and Pike and a large tree reportedly fell near the Bush School. There were no widespread power outages reported in the area.

$5 A MONTH TO HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE

Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you. Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for $5 a month — or choose your level of support