Building Collapse Kills Local Historian

A city-owned rowhouse collapsed yesterday, killing an amateur historian who was attempting to renovate it. The tragedy again raises questions about the city's monitoring and policing of building permits and its own huge stock of vacant buildings, which have been

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Alvin Kirby Brunson owned the house at 562 Wilson St. for years before the city took it for back taxes in September of 2005. He did not sell it to the city for $218,000,

. According to news reports, the building collapsed at about 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, March 30, as Brunson and two other men were working in it. The two workers fled the building in time; Brunson,

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's

in 2005, was trapped in the basement.

Firefighters took about three hours to dig his body from the rubble.

Brunson operated the Center for Cultural Education from 541 Wilson, a house across the street from the collapsed building. Though his center only lasted two years before being forfeited for nonpayment of state taxes in 2003, Brunson was a tireless neighborhood booster, and he led

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reporter Christina Royster-Hemby on a tour for her

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City records indicate that someone pulled permits to "reframe interior walls," "construct new subfloors, replace floor joist, construct new stair steps" in June 2006, nearly a year after Brunson lost the building for nonpayment of taxes (or water bills). A second permit requesting a "time extension" of the first was granted in January, 2007, and a third, to "reframe walls & floor in basement using 2"x4" studs on walls & 2" x 8" floor joist as per code" was granted on Feb 21 of this year.

Builders and engineers have told

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in the past that removing all the floor joists from a rowhouse weakens the structure and can lead to collapse.

There were no plans filed with the permits, and no building inspector visited the project, according to the city building permit records available to

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. The available records do not say who pulled the permits, but circumstantially it appears that Brunson did.

Brunson is not a licensed contractor or homebuilder, according to state records.

Ordinarily, municipalities do not allow the former owners of their buildings to renovate them, as doing so would open up liability issues for city taxpayers. It appears that Brunson did not realize that he was no longer the building's owner, and the city's Housing Department did not inform him of that fact, opting instead to approve his permit applications three different times.

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has asked city housing officials to answer questions about the collapse and about their monitoring of the building and the permits issued. We hope to hear from them soon.