Blaze to Dust
October 10, 2023
By: Alexa Schlosser
On April 24, 2023, a fire broke out in a historic apartment building in Mason City, Iowa. The fire caused the roof of the north half of the three-story Kirk Apartments building to collapse. Although no one was hurt, the downtown building, built in 1896, was destroyed.
NDA member DeCarlo Demolition was chosen to be the demolition contractor by the owner of the building and their insurance company because of “DeCarlo Demolition’s quality and long-standing work since 1926,” says Dan DeCarlo, the company’s president.
DeCarlo Demolition mobilized on May 16, and demolition began the following day. “The job had to happen quickly, as the streets around the apartment building were closed due to fear of the building collapsing,” DeCarlo says. “Because of the road closure, many of the surrounding businesses were impacted greatly with reduced access.”
The building was so badly damaged that the demolition was “pretty straightforward,” DeCarlo says. It was unable to be tested for the presence of asbestos due to the severity of the burn damage, so DeCarlo Demolition had to assume the entire building contained asbestos.
“Therefore,” DeCarlo says, “the strategy was to get the building down in a safe manner staying within the original footprint as to not disturb the restaurant that sat about 50 feet to the west of the apartment building or the decorative sidewalk on the south and east sides.”
To complete the demo, light pole fixtures and statues had to be moved out of the way. The team trucked in sand and placed it in the parking lot just north of the building and surrounding sidewalks for protection. Then, the team set up an asbestos containment zone with warning tape and signs, a decontamination trailer and a separate loadout zone.
The demo started on the north brick wall, moving the brick out of the way to be able to make entrance into the heart of the building that contained all the burned landfill material. The building was brought to the ground where the loadout process began.
The loadout process lasted about a week and a half, moving just under 100 loads of asbestos-containing material to the landfill in 66 cubic yard trailers. Because of the size of the building, the landfill was loaded out from the south, west and north sides in respective order. The foundation was then removed several feet below the surrounding grade. The next step was backfilling the original footprint of the building, which lasted three days. The final step was to regrade and hydroseed the area.
Because DeCarlo Demolition had to assume the building contained asbestos because it couldn’t test for it, all the material had to be disposed of at the landfill instead of being recycled.
Ultimately, DeCarlo says, the job, which was completed on June 9, was successful. “We were able to finish the job in the time frame given. We were able to get the building down and secure for the city of Mason City to open the surrounding streets up for a yearly festival they hold near the apartment. The owner and the city were extremely happy with the work and how it turned out.
“Success is being able to produce a finished product that far exceeds the expectation of the client. Success is being as efficient as possible. Success is also finding the right employees that take pride and passion in what they do. When you have that, the finished product result is the same every time.”