Crews Clear Collapsed Ceiling at Long Beach High School

Construction crews worked overnight Friday to secure a ceiling that collapsed at Long Beach High School earlier in the day.

Peter Wilk, a spokesman from the Brooklyn-based Wilk Marketing Communications, a public relations firm working with a renovation and construction team at LBHS, said in a statement early Saturday morning that crews were working overnight to secure and remove an extended area of suspended stucco ceiling that collapsed inside the ground-floor's east parking area, under the second story of the high school, at 322 Lagoon Drive West in Lido Beach, at about 5:10 p.m. Friday, according to Nassau County Police Department.

The police department’s Emergency Services Unit and Canine Unit and Point Lookout-Lido Fire Department firefighters responded to the scene Friday afternoon and reported no injuries at the school, which was closed for spring recess.

But Wilks said that earlier Friday crews from the Wantagh-based Gramercy Wrecking & Environmental Contractors were preparing the site for the removal of the heating and cooling system’s piping in the vicinity of the incident, but no crews were present or working in the parking area at the time.  

“The entire construction site is separated from the school grounds and all noisy or disruptive work is taking place only after school hours,” stated Wilk, who noted that the ceiling was originally installed in the early 1970s.

Point Lookout-Lido Chief Brian Guerin said that when he and firefighters arrived at the scene their first priority was to make sure no one was buried under the fallen ceiling. “We had to make sure no people or cars were underneath it; that there were no injuries at all,” he said.

But firefighters were cautious about entering the area, he noted, unsure if the building’s structure was compromised and a further collapse was imminent. “Initially we didn’t know that until we assessed the situation a little and realized it wasn’t structural, it was just the ceiling itself,” said Guerin, who add that firefighters found nothing of significance underneath.

Board of Education Vice President Roy Lester said that contractors were at the high school on Thursday and Friday and cut a channel into the ceiling to make upgrades — part of a $98 million district-wide preservation project to improve schools and facilities that voters approved in 2009 — and he believes that because the ceiling had never been cut before the wind may have blown in and caused the ceiling to fluctuate, according to Newsday. Lester said:

"The entire ceiling has to be replaced. It's like a kitchen after a big dinner. It looks like a mess, but it's really not that bad.”

Superintendent David Weiss said in a statement posted on the school district’s website that no one was injured and no cars were damaged due to the collapse, and that the high school will remain closed until it is officially deemed safe:

“School officials and the construction management company are currently investigating how this area of the roof may have collapsed and ensuring the structural integrity of the rest of the building. The high school will be closed until it is inspected and certified as safe. Clean-up has already begun. All sports practices are moved to the middle school for Saturday."

Weiss said he expected the site would be cleaned up by the end of Saturday and that school would reopen after spring recess on April 16, but first state education officials must inspect the site to ensure its safety, and he noted that the ceiling was in place for aesthetic purposes and does not impact the flooring of the classrooms above, according to the Long Beach Herald. Weiss said:

“We have a hung ceiling made of cement over the parking area, and a portion of it fell during some construction. The ceiling has nothing to do with the flooring."

* This story was updated at 3:09 p.m. on 4.7.12.