When a blue Honda Fit swerved off of Main Street Monday evening and into the corner of the BB&T bank building near the entrance to the Valley Hills Shopping Plaza, the immediate concern was for the driver of that vehicle. The driver, the sole occupant of the car, was carefully removed by Bridgeport Fire Department personnel and taken to United Hospital Center with non-life threatening injuries.

 

Once the driver was taken away, the car removed and the scene was cleared, the work wasn’t done for the Fire Department. According to Captain Phil Hart, whenever a building is struck by a vehicle or has damage to it on a call they respond to, they have to check for structural integrity. The BB&T building was determined to be safe for occupancy.

 

“In a situation like that what we do first is make sure there are no immediate hazards from problems with electric or a broken gas or water line,” said Hart. “After that, we begin the process of looking for readily visible structural damage that could be a problem.”

 

In this particular case, nothing was found. While Hart said the department handles calls of this nature and inspections multiple times, it’s usually not for vehicles hitting buildings.

 

“In most situations, we are checking out a building that has had a small fire in an isolated section of the structure,” said Hart. “We have to determine if it’s safe for occupancy and we do a lot of the same type of inspection.”

 

Even after the fire department gives its green light, they recommend that the owners of the structures do more. He said it is best that the building’s owner – whether commercial or residential – have a professional engineer or a maintenance employee go over the building to make sure everything is in working order.

 

“It’s best that someone very familiar with the building or someone with a background in something like engineering take a serious look at a structure,” said Hart. “We always recommend that.”

 

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Editor’s Note:Photo courtesy of WDTV.