Roof Of Paramus Home Collapses After Winter Storm
PARAMUS, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- All of the snow from Monday's winter storm took a toll on a house in Paramus on Wednesday.
The storm dumped about 20 inches of snow on Paramus, and the weight of it caused a home to collapse onto its foundation, CBS2's Christina Fan reports.
Fortunately, no one was living inside the home at the time.
Demolition crews tore apart what little remained of the home after a three-day nor'easter battered it with nearly two feet of snow.
Neighbors say they were prepared for downed trees and power lines, but never this.
"Yeah, definitely scared. Everybody got scared, all of them. My friend, neighbor, he called me, we were talking and we said why did this happen?" neighbor Khursheed Siddiqi told CBS2's Christina Fan.
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The roof of the home on Arbor Road collapsed Tuesday night.
The property owner says he was in the process of demolishing the old structure to build a new one, when the storm came through and did the work for him.
The Paramus fire chief says building inspectors are determining what went wrong.
"This is a rare occurrence. This doesn't normally happen. Regular homeowners, as long as you take care of your house, everything's good, you have no real issues to worry about," Fire Chief Michael Cleenput said.
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Even so, CBS2 caught several people who were gawking at the pancaked house nervously return home to look at their own roofs.
"My roof, of course, compared to that roof, my roof is, about 2015, I rebuilt it, so maybe more stronger than [that roof]," Siddiqi said.
Experts say generally it takes two feet of snow on your roof to significantly weaken the structure.
CBS2's Christina Fan contributed to this report.
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