The building at 125 E. Philadelphia Ave. housed Ellixson's Tae Kwon Do Academy and D&W Motorsports.

Crews will start working today to demolish the building, said Charles Neubauer, chief of Boyertown's Friendship Hook and Ladder Fire Company.

No one was inside the building at the time. If there had been, Neubauer said, it is likely they would have been hurt or killed.

When firefighters arrived they thought people were trapped because the outside door was unlocked and coats were hanging inside a front room.

The firefighters were planning to shore up the building and search for people when they finally reached building owner Don Ellixson by phone about 45 minutes later.

Ellixson said he had closed early and no one was in the building, Neubauer said.

The building was older and had a domelike wooden roof. The snow seems to have blown onto one side of the roof, and that was more weight than it could bear, Neubauer said.

All but one of the cinder block walls came down, spilling debris into the street, he said.

That block of East Philadelphia Avenue remained closed Thursday.

Cinder blocks also struck an adjacent four-story apartment building, blocking the main doorway, so volunteers moved those blocks to clear a path, Neubauer said. That building didn't sustain any structural damage.

When the collapse occurred, firefighters were stationed at the Friendship company and Keystone Steam Engine Company in Boyertown, as they were throughout the storm.

The snow had slowed down considerably by that time, and firefighters from those companies and the Liberty Fire Company in New Berlinville got to the scene quickly, which is a credit to the borough streets department, Neubauer said.

"They did a tremendous job keeping the streets open," he said. "It was a good cooperative effort here."

Earlier Wednesday, snow caused a back porch roof to collapse at 203 Water St. in Boyertown, and about 10 a.m. Thursday a three-bay garage caved in at 85 Mexico Road, Alsace Township, officials said.

Contact Mike Urban: 610-371-5023 or murban@readingeagle.com.

one of the truly awesome parts about being from a small town is that you find out about things very quickly. (although, i guess this could be bad depending on your situation!) i got a call from one of my biggest fans, my sister-in-law, a few weeks ago telling me that she sat down to have some lunch and read the newspaper. when she opened the paper, right on the front cover of the neighborhood section was a big, fat picture of…me. whoops! guess i forgot to tell her that a few weeks prior i interviewed with a reporter from the boyertown times about my stylish wedding garter company.

click here to read the boyertown times article entitled “bridal garter gets a make over.”

a few weeks later, i get a call from my brother with the same type of scenario. a few of his co-workers and some patients were talking about an article about my company. he was clueless and, of course, immediately called me to find out what was going on…and to make fun of me. as it turns out, the boyertown times is owned by the same company that owns the pottstown mercury. (for those that aren’t from the area, pottstown is the next town over and the big city compared to boyertown.) the mercury re-ran the same article a few weeks later. so, it was a great little, unexpected bonus!

click here to read the pottstown mercury article entitled, “boyertown native has a fresh, stylish take on the garter.” (this article is the same as the boyertown times article.)

the sweetest part about this is that my sister-in-law saved both papers and just sent them to me, so over the weekend i got to see the articles first-hand.

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