Seawall collapses beneath Massachusetts waterfront restaurant
By WBZ Digital staff
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SWAMPSCOTT, Massachusetts (WBZ) — The seawall under Mission On The Bay, a waterfront restaurant in Swampscott, collapsed on Thursday afternoon. SkyEye footage showed that the seawall had fallen away under the restaurant on Humphrey Street.
Swampscott fire and police responded and evacuated the building. There were no injuries and gas service to the building was disconnected as a precaution.
The Swampscott staple is now dangling over King’s Beach, in danger of falling into the ocean. It was just after lunch when the seawall gave way and crumbled down
“I had someone text me saying ‘oh my God are you OK?’ and that’s when I found out,” said Kiri Rostad, who works at the restaurant.
Rostad happened to be off work, but she got calls from her coworkers saying the wall started sliding underneath the restaurant.
“I have a lot of affection for the location. I worked there before it was this version, Mission On The Bay, so it was really appealing for me to come here and to start three weeks ago and to have this happen is disheartening,” Rostad said.
Engineers are trying to figure out if the building is compromised. On the ground, crews sprayed cement on the retaining wall, hoping to shore it up. Until the wall is fixed, the building will have to stay closed.
The town has reached out to the Army Corps of Engineers for assistance.
A shocked community couldn’t stay away to see what happened.
“The beach is a wonderful asset for the community, but it can wreak havoc too in storms, and there wasn’t even a storm today,” said Diana Caplan.
The partial seawall collapse didn’t just impact Mission On The Bay. A few steps away, another property the town just bought called Anthony’s Pier 4 Café, was also affected. Crews shut down the courtyard area next to the restaurant and the lot nearest to the collapsed wall.
Many are left wondering what the impact will be for the waterfront.
“Thank goodness no one was hurt you really have to thank your lucky stars that this happened at a time where we didn’t have a lot of occupants in that building,” said Swampscott Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald.
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