Published: April 23, 2008 09:58 am      

‘Signs by Bill’ building collapses

The structure, which housed the “Signs by Bill” business, collapsed without warning about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Virginia Shirley stood with a neighbor, calmly surveying the wreckage of what had been her property at 404 E. Noble St. in Lebanon.

The structure, which housed the “Signs by Bill” business, collapsed without warning about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday.

While the cause has not been determined, “That earthquake didn’t help it any,” Shirley said, referring to a 5.2 magnitude shock last Friday.

The building was vacant, she said. There were no injuries.

“There was a definite boom,” when the cement block building, constructed in 1935, collapsed, Shirley said.

“We dressed poultry in there,” she said.

As the dust cloud was settling, she called her son, Randy, who was in Shelbyville.

He surveyed the debris, observed part of the roof was being held up by tables and a desk, then shouted to a neighbor, “I told you it was going to go.”

The Shirleys had planned to demolish the building.

Natural gas service to the building had been shut off, he said. A Lebanon Utilities crew turned off electricity after the collapse. The building’s east wall collapsed, almost intact, onto a alley between Noble and Ash streets.