The building that houses Adventure Coffee Co. in Ozark’s historic square collapsed early Thursday morning. Emergency crews were dispatched at about 8:30 a.m. to the building, located at 101 W. Church St.
Nobody was injured during the collapse, according to Samantha Payne, Ozark’s public information officer. However, there were a handful of people in the building, including one employee at Adventure Coffee Co. immediately prior to the collapse. Everyone evacuated “as soon as they started hearing noises.”
Persons in the attached building were also evacuated as the power and gas were cut off for all of them for safety reasons.
A pile of bricks were strewn across the corner of West Church Street and North First Street, with a bed and a couch in the second-floor apartment both at an incline as the floor (and the ceiling of the coffee shop) had begun to cave in.
The wall of the coffee shop that crumbled was once decorated with a hand-drawn mural of flowers and plants that was done by the owner's family and friends.
In addition to the coffee shop, the building contains an upstairs office space and a residential apartment.
Yellow crime scene tape stretched across Church Street from North Second Street to North Second Avenue, on the other side of the square, and around much of the Christian County government building. A handful of emergency responders — including the Ozark Police Department and the Fire Protection District — were on the scene around noon, several hours after the incident took place.
Adventure Coffee Co. took to Facebook, showing gratitude that nobody was hurt and for the community support.
The cause of the collapse is still unknown. In the meantime, firefighters and police officers restricted access to areas around the building while waiting for a structural engineer to come out and assess the next steps. Cleanup will not commence and the current blockade will remain in place until the engineer completes the assessment.
The owner of the building has been notified and at the scene “all morning,” according to Payne.
A Christian County property report indicates the building is owned by a limited liability company called Huckleberry Investments LLC, with offices in Springfield and Ozark. The report also says that the building was constructed in 1910, making it nearly 113 years old.
