SOUTHWEST DETROIT – Local 4 has been tracking some of Metro Detroit’s most dangerous buildings, this time a former house of worship that has been a magnet for arson.
The church is on Harbaugh Street in Detroit’s Delray neighborhood.
This gorgeous structure was a Hungarian catholic church built in 1922. It was abandoned in 2013.
It has been set on fire multiple times. The last arson was just a few weeks ago.
The city put it on the emergency demo list and got on it immediately, bringing down most of the church Wednesday (June 5) afternoon.
The director of Detroit Demolition, Lujuan Counts, told us why bringing down the city’s most dangerous buildings was essential to them.
“This church has been ordered as an emergency demolition as of last week when we got the order from Buildings, Safety Engineering, and Environmental Department to get those properties down within seven to 10 days,” said Counts. “So, we are well within our seven to 10 days by hitting it today.”
Counts continued:
“The report was that there had been a fire run,” Counts said. “I’m sure there had been several fire runs prior too but this run had made portions of the structure unsafe to the sense that they were concerned about collapsing into the public right away.”
BSEED declared the emergency demolition due to the safety of the building and its possibly collapsing onto the public.
Officials say the front of the church will be demolished on Thursday, June 6.
