A Metropolitan Police officer tapes off the sidewalk in front of the Tau Kappa Epsilon house on 22nd Street as residents walk to Funger Hall. Viktors Dindzans/ Photo Editor
Residents in the Tau Kappa Epsilon house have been displaced, after the roof of their townhouse on 22nd street showed early warning signs of collapse, a University spokeswoman said Wednesday.
“A resident of the TKE townhouse noticed the roof collapsing and called 911,” said University spokeswoman Michelle Sherrard in an e-mail. “MPD determined the house was unsafe and needed to be evacuated.”
Sherrard said the four residents of the townhouse have been relocated to Guthridge Hall and that GW Facilities Management and the University Police Department conducted additional safety sweeps of the properties at 619 and 617 22nd Streets and determined they were safe.
Pete Piringer, public information officer for the D.C. Fire Department, said the TKE house was marked as unsafe to occupy after the Fire Department on scene said the roof had been compromised and appeared to be in danger of collapse.
Piringer said the D.C. building inspector has been notified of the structural issue, but did not know when the inspector would be able to make it to the house.
Adam Silverman, the house manager, said he called 911 after he watched the main structural beam of his top floor room slowly crack and splinter.
Rafi Moersen, a resident of the TKE house who has been moved to Guthridge Hall, said he and the other house residents cannot enter the house for at least a week.
“We are throwing parties still, our social life has not been damaged,” Moersen said of the move. “We are having a house warming party in Guthridge 209.”
Moersen said the fraternity house has been in that same location for 35 years, and that this snowstorm was the only thing able to remove them from the house.
“We’ve never been kicked off campus in almost 75 years,” Moersen said. “The only way we are getting kicked out now is over mother nature.”
Four people? Doesn’t sound like much of a house.
this might finally get them off campus.
stop complaining
Puts a new meaning to the frat party chant “raise the roof!”