Bulk of Albion warehouse has been knocked down
Photos by Tom Rivers
ALBION – Contractors have the shell of a warehouse knocked down less than two weeks after a massive fire destroyed the three-story building on Hamilton Street and Route 31.
After the fire at Orleans Pallet, the four walls of the structure remained. The east and north walls came down a day after the fire. But the other walls on the south and west sides had to be chipped away by hand. A demolition contractor needed to use a lift for more than a week to manually remove chunks of the sandstone walls.
Most of those pieces have been pushed into the rubble – the twisted steel and charred beams – from the building.
Orleans Pallet owner Shawn Malark has said he wants to save as much of the sandstone as possible for reuse in the community.
The Environmental Construction Group of Albion has been the lead contractor on the demolition. It was assisted by Empire Wrecking of Rochester.
Here is how the building looked on Oct. 18, before demolition crews went to work on the remaining walls from the site, which was built in 1901. The smaller sandstone building won’t be knocked down.
