Dummy grenade gives workers scare
For about 30 minutes Wednesday morning, it looked like the Alvarado Street building in Monterey, CA that burned in a fire last month might come down earlier than expected.
Workers preparing for the demolition of the T.A. Work Building at 467 Alvarado St. discovered a grenade in a second floor office around 10:30 a.m.
A Monterey police officer with military experience was summoned and he quickly determined that the grenade was not a live weapon, but one used for training. After further investigation, Monterey police said they learned that the grenade belonged to Monterey Bay Toxics Project, one of the building's former tenants.
The nonprofit bought the piece from an Army-Navy surplus store and had used it to show people the types of ordnance they might encounter at the former Fort Ord, Monterey police said.
The grenade was never at risk of exploding, but still it gave some people in downtown Monterey a scare, and caused the temporary closure of Tyler Street.
"It just got our hearts started," said Rick Johnson, executive director of the Old Monterey Business Association.
The episode was another unexpected turn in what's become a monthlong effort to bring down the 100-year-old charred shell.
Two days after the Feb. 7 fire, city officials estimated that the demolition of the building would begin the following week. But the process slowed as a team of engineers tried to figure out the safest way to bring down the fire-gutted structure, which shares walls with its neighbors.
Consultants hired by Saucito Land Co., the property owners, later discovered high asbestos levels in the building and a new demolition strategy had to be crafted.
Despite the surprises and delays, the building will start coming down today, said Jerry Anderson of Ventana Asset Management, a Monterey property management and consulting firm working for the property owners.
The process will begin inside the building, and passersby won't really begin to notice the building coming down until Wednesday, Anderson said.
Before beginning the demolition, the abatement contractors were scheduled to remove the last pieces of property left by 21 former tenants, who have been concerned that the building might be demolished before they could retrieve belongings.
Now they have a chance to rummage through the remains.
"Probably what everybody is doing is kind of holding their breath to see what survived," Johnson said. "Now we will know, and that's a huge part of healing -- just knowing."
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