Morning Journal/Mary Ann Greier This house at 943 E. Fourth St., Salem, which was awaiting demolition next week, apparently couldn’t wait anymore, with the east side wall collapsing Thursday and spilling into the alley next door.

SALEM — A home on East Fourth Street already slated for demolition collapsed on its own Thursday evening, with the leaning east side wall falling into the alley next to it.

“The neighbor across the street said they heard it fall,” Salem Fire Chief Scott Mason said.

The fire department got the call at 4:37 p.m. for a building collapse at 943 E. Fourth St. The structure had been vacant and on the city’s radar as uninhabitable and unsafe for well over a year and was first in line to be torn down, along with five other houses condemned by the housing department and ordered demolished by the city Board of Housing Appeals.

No injuries were reported.

Less Contracting had it on the schedule for Monday, but now the company is coming today to tear down the house the rest of the way. A representative of the company stopped at the scene to survey the damage and told Mason crews would be coming before noon.

For now, the fire department placed more barricades and closed off the sidewalk. The alley had already been blocked off after city officials noticed early in the summer that the east wall was bowed out and the roof had collapsed into the house.

When asked if there was any risk of the house collapsing more or damaging the home next door, Mason said he didn’t think so.

“It looks like if it’s going to do anything, it’s going to collapse on itself. The front and back porches are kind of holding it in place,” he said.

Mason said people need to stay away from it. If anyone is seen going into any vacant homes that are condemned or in bad condition, he said people should call the police. He said no vacant house is safe for people to be playing around.

“That’s the house that really got the ball rolling,” Mayor John Berlin said.

When he learned this summer that the roof at the East Fourth Street house had caved in and an alley had to be closed due to a leaning wall, he investigated what the city could do to take it down and take down other homes that had been condemned by the housing department due to their conditions.

As a result, the Board of Housing Appeals was able to meet after several years of inactivity and took action to get the homes down. The cost is being covered by the city, but will likely appear on the owner’s tax bill as an assessment.

Besides the property on East Fourth Street, the properties to be demolished include: 1260 E. Pershing St. which is also known as 1262 Court St.; 318 S. Union Ave.; 165 Rose Ave.; 1675 S. Lincoln Ave.; and 274 W. Wilson St.

All six of the properties already had demolition placards placed on them previously, with new placards placed again earlier in September giving owners 30 days to demolish the condemned properties. Letters were also sent to the property owner on record for each property. According to city ordinance, an appeal to the board must be filed 10 days after the notice of violation is served, but according to the city housing department, no appeals were filed.

None of the houses had been demolished yet.

“I wish we had been able to do it before it fell in,” Berlin said about the house on East Fourth Street.

He said what happened shows the gravity of the situation with these houses.

mgreier@salemnews.net