Half of the roof collapsed today at 100 N. Center in downtown Brownwood. Most residents will know this building as the old Southwest Appliance building located a block from the Brown County courthouse.
The Brownwood Fire Department and city officials were on the scene with about two blocks of downtown blocked off for safety as city employees tried to determine if the remainder of the building was stable.
Workers hired by the building’s owner have been recently working on an interior demolition of the building.
Those workers on the scene this afternoon said that they left the building at approximately 11:30 am for lunch. All of the workers returned to the building at 12:30 to begin more of the demolition job and were standing in the street behind the building. Building workers said that at 12:32 they heard a loud rumble and crash and they began to run down the street away from the building. Workers described a large cloud of dust billowing up from the building that covered nearby cars as the roof collapsed. They also described several dozen bats observed leaving the building and entering a neighboring building.
Luckily no one was in the building during the roof collapse and no injuries were reported. The part of 
the roof that collapsed was contained inside the top floor of the building.
City officials were on the scene determining if the building was structurally sound. Preliminary reports as of Thursday afternoon were that everything looked safe, but city workers were still evaluating the situation. There was a large crack observed at the top of the building facing west on Center, but city officials were not sure if the crack existed before the roof collapse.
The workers doing the demo work on the building did tell of a bright spot. They rescued a single baby bird from the building and were trying to take care of it as they waited to return to work in the building.
See more photos in our photo gallery below.
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