Coggs Building Update

If the gentle reader will remember, the Coggs Building, the social service center for Milwaukee County, was having a really rough week a couple weeks ago.  First it suffered severe water damage due to an improperly sealed roof and a severe thunderstorm.  Then it suffered severe soot and smoke damage from a five alarm fire which happened directly across the street.

All of this was enough that it closed the building for three days while water and smoke damage specialists did their magic.

When we returned to work, I was very impressed.  They did a thorough cleaning of the entire building, top to bottom, including workers' personal effects, ceiling tiles, chairs, carpeting, and just about everything.  I think it's been the cleanest that I've seen in the time I've worked there.  Kudos to the hardworking crews that put in 10 to 12 hour days to get us up and running.

However, when we reopened, not everything was perfect.  The smoke had caused a lot of the electronics to go haywire and the IT folks were kept busy getting systems and individual work stations up and running again. Kudos to these folks too.

The building that was on fire burned to the ground.  TMJ4 is reporting that the fire might have been arson.

Here's a couple photos of the remnants and the clean up effort which was closely followed by investigators:

What was left after a five alarm fire

But at least the pay phone survived - what the
heck are they made of? Even the handpiece didn't melt!

The clean up starts. The operator was very skilled and
avoided mishap although there were a couple
of scary moments where it looked like he'd tip over.

What I have yet to see reported anywhere but here is the water damage which the building suffered days before the fire.  I even saw one news report on Fox6Milwaukee where the reporter is walking past the dehumidifiers and not mentioning them once.  But the evidence of the damage remains with stripped down walls, plastic covering the holes they cut into the walls, parts of the artificial ceiling missing and the employee stairwell and entrance still out of commission.  Here are just a couple of photos to show some of the ceiling fixtures which were damaged:

I have the name of the roofing company that left the roof improperly sealed and am looking into them.  If there is anything of note, I'll report on it when I find out.