4 Buildings Collapse Due To Heavy Winds; City Ramping Up Demolition Efforts

BALTIMORE (WJZ)--Heavy winds wreaked havoc across our area over the weekend causing several buildings to collapse in Baltimore.

The destruction came as winds topped 60 mph in some parts of our region.

Rick Ritter has a closer look at the aftermath and what the city is doing to address the growing problem.

Cell phone video obtained by WJZ shows the intense moments firefighters are trying to save 69-year-old Thomas Lemmon.

This, after a vacant building in West Baltimore falls and crushes his Cadillac killing Lemmon while he's sitting inside.

"He was always there for you if you needed anything, always there for everybody," said Louis Woolridge, a nephew of Lemmon.

His family relives the horrifying scene that unfolded along Payson Street.

"The wind blew it and it fell right on him and then you heard something go boom," said Rickiy Carroll, a nephew of Lemmon.

The collapse was just the first of a series due to days of heavy winds.

Over the weekend four more abandoned buildings crumbled, including one across the street from Nikki Davis where she usually parks her car.

"I'm just glad and thankful to god I didn't and no one got hurt," she said.

The mayor calls it a constant challenge and says there may not be a quick solution to prevent collapses like this, from happening again.

"We have a problem that continues to grow, as the buildings age, they're not getting younger, they're getting older," said Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.

Rawlings-Blake says there's no additional money available to "sure up" every vacant building.

"That's why we have them inspected on a regular basis and try to sure up those ones we feel are at most risk," said Rawlings-Blake.

A problem that will take time to address.

Time Lemmon's family says time is of the essence.

"The kids play around that same spot where that happened, supposed that happened to the kids," said Woolridge

The mayor says they quadrupled city's investment in tearing down and demolishing vacant structures to be more aggressive, but says even that's not enough to get it done immediately.

In the four buildings that collapsed over the weekend, no residents or firefighters were injured.