Demolition At The Hard Rock Hotel Caused Alarm As Smoke Rose Into The Air

Parts of the Hard Rock Hotel collapsed Thursday as part of a planned demolition of the construction site. Last October, the site partially collapsed, killing three people and injuring many more.

According to 4WWL, people in the surrounding area were alarmed when a large portion of the building fell, sending smoke into the air. Walter Zehner, lead engineer on the demolition project, said the collapse went exactly as planned.

"It looked a lot like the original collapse when it came down, but it was exactly what we had hoped it would do," he said.

Bill Kearney, spokesman for the owners of the project, said Thursday's collapse was "part of a series of small, controlled removals. It's going to continue to happen like this as we move forward with the demolition." Demolition work will begin next week on the Iberville Street side of the project, Zehner told 4WWL.

On October 12, 2019, three workers were killed when the parts of the 18-story building collapsed during construction, but only the body of Anthony Magrette was recovered at the time. In August, 10 months after the initial incident, the bodies of Quinnyon Wimberly and Jose Ponce Arreola were finally recovered. Mayor LaToya Cantrell announced last month that the city would file a suit against the property developers.

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