JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The city of Jacksonville has issued an emergency demolition permit to bring down the RISE Doro apartment building after a fire destroyed the $60 million project.
The fire first sparked three days ago, hundreds of firefighters spent hours battling the flames and they're still monitoring the building, which is deemed unsafe.
Demolition crews started moving in equipment earlier Wednesday morning. The City says demolition crews will spend Wednesday and Thursday setting up around the building, the the demolition process will begin. There is no timeline for when this should be completed.
The demolition will cost $1.2 million which will be paid by RISE.
Structural engineer Ron Woods is not working on this specific demolition, but he believes we will likely see wrecking balls and robotics used, a process he says would typically take at least two months.
"This is wood frame, it's podium construction, meaning there's two stories of reinforced concrete or cast-in-place concrete or precast concrete. Some type of rigid structure like that. And then five stories of wood framing or stick framing above that. So those things have to be considered," Woods said.
“Using a wrecking ball, they'll be capable of pushing the exterior walls to the inside, and essentially smashing everything down. That gives them a lot more control over the demolition than if they did an implosion for a structure like this," Woods said.
The apartment building's wood framing will be demolished, but the concrete garage and foundation will remain, according to city leaders. Woods says once the wood comes down, the concrete will need to be tested for safety.
"Concrete that's exposed for more than three or four hours to temperatures that exceed about 600 to 800 degrees Fahrenheit, can be affected significantly in terms of strength and durability," Woods said.
That's why he thinks rebuilding the apartment building will take some time even after the wood framing comes down.
"They do you have a lot of considerations to make. And so it's difficult to move it along as quickly as people would like sometimes," Woods said.
A city spokesperson said once demolition equipment is in place, the demolition process will begin but at this time there is no timeline on when the process could be completed.