A crack in the roof forced the closure of the A&P supermarket in Little Silver Wednesday. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi; click to enlarge)
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
The A&P in Little Silver was evacuated this morning and will be closed for the foreseeable future as a result of a partial roof collapse.
The structural failure is believed to be caused by the weight of the recent blast of snow, landlord Ben Lucarelli said.
“It’s going to be quite some time before I get it open again,” Lucarelli, who is also a councilman in Fair Haven, told redbankgreen.
He said a store manager noticed a crack in one of the walls, near the produce aisle, around 8:30a. When Lucarelli showed up, he followed the crack to the roof and discovered several split joists.
The store was evacuated around 9:30a, he said.
“It wasn’t like there were customers hearing alarms going off and people running out of the store,” Lucarelli said. “To that effect, it’s not that spectacular. It’s just an unsafe condition.”
Lucarelli said engineers are working on shoring up the roof and finding a permanent fix to get the store opened back up.
