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Watch the Old Kaier Brewery Come Crashing Down in Mahanoy City

MAHANOY CITY — That building in Schuylkill County in danger of collapse earlier this week has been brought down safely. The snow didn’t stop demolit...

MAHANOY CITY -- That building in Schuylkill County in danger of collapse earlier this week has been brought down safely.

The snow didn't stop demolition crews from dismantling the former Kaier Brewery in Mahanoy City.

Crews spent hours Thursday carefully knocking down the building along North Main Street. It started collapsing earlier this week.

The demolition that was supposed to take two hours took two days.

North Main Street in Mahanoy City remains closed but 20 neighbors forced out of their homes on Tuesday have been allowed to return.

Boomer Brown and his wife had to leave their home near the Kaier Brewery on Tuesday. Safety officials feared the building would collapse.

The Red Cross put them up at a nearby hotel.

"It was like a second honeymoon, but we had the dog with us, too," said Brown.

But even before the building came down all the way, crews knocked off enough bricks to allow Brown and 19 other neighbors to go back to their homes.

"It's like hitting the lottery," Brown said. "My house is intact. They did a wonderful job. These people are professionals."

Some spectators wondered if the steel skeleton of the brewery building would remain standing through the weekend.

Then at about 2:15 p.m., the excavator pulled a column from the ground floor and the building collapsed leaving a cloud of brick and concrete dust.

"It went up, and that was it, and it went down after a while. And the building is no more, and the building's no more and thank God, and there's one less danger in the Mahanoy City area," said Clara Ballesteros.

Soon the debris will be removed to make way for a park dedicated to veterans from Mahanoy City.

Boomer Brown is glad to be back in his home and even though demolition crews took two days to knock down the brewery, brOwn says they did things the right way.

"I worked in construction for 40-something years doing bridges and all that and I thought these guys are really good."

Also on Friday, crews found a safe in the building which now legally belongs to Mahanoy City. A borough council member tells Newswatch 16 there is no money in the safe, just a few payroll records.

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