High Street building collapses

This is the dramatic sight that greeted people on Berkhamsted High Street on the morning of Sunday 30 January 2011, after a three storey building collapsed in the night.

With rubble spilling out into the road and the risk of a further collapse, the High Street was closed to traffic.

It was in the early hours of Sunday morning that the fire service answered a 999 call that there that there had been massive structural damage to the three storey detatched building.

It was thought a vehicle had slammed into the Victorian building, but on arrival crews found no vehicle present and an engineer later determined the front of the building had collapsed because of a structural fault.

No one was hurt and Hertfordshire's fire service said there was no gas or electricity problem.

The building had once been a men's outfitters.  Locals said it had recently been sold and building work had been going on inside the premises.