DETROIT – For the second time in two weeks, a company contracted by the city of Detroit to demolish homes took down the wrong house.
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Emergency demolitions were ordered for two Land Bank-owned houses after they had fires. However, the one that was scheduled to be torn down first is still standing, while one next door, which had asbestos warnings and demolition orders plastered on it, was torn down.
The house that was supposed to be demolished had collapsed on itself and did not have a visible address. Despite this, Brian Farkas, with the Detroit Building Authority, said the contractors are given information from the city so mistakes like wrong demolitions do not happen.
"They have a packet of information to identify the correct house. In this case, we're still looking at what we could have done better internally because there was gray area here," Farkas said.
Both houses were unoccupied.
"This happens very, very rarely," Farkas said.
An investigation is ongoing. No fines are expected, as the city said it can understand why there was confusion.