On Main Street in Mount Airy, a building begins to crumble

Crews in Mount Airy are working to secure the area around a historic building that partially collapsed early Tuesday morning.

The Main Oak Building has stood since the early 1900s, but it is extremely unstable.

"It's just heartbreaking. That's one of the prettiest buildings on the street," said Debbie Wall.

Chris Carpenter said the building had once been home to Midkiff Hardware.

"It just devastating to see," he said.

Crews were hoping to preserve the old facade, but public safety takes precedence. The first reports of falling bricks came about 4:30 a.m. By 5:30 a.m. the building had partially collapsed.

After that, the focus turned to making sure the area was secure for passers by.

"We set up our perimeter. We got some permanent fencing coming to put around. If this thing falls, debris is just going to fly out everywhere," said Mount Airy Assistant Fire Chief Chris Fallaw.

The building is part of a row of attached businesses which multiplies the danger.

"We treat it as one box," Fallaw said. "If that building collapses, it very well could pull the other buildings apart or cause collapse on the other buildings, so what we did is evacuate this whole block."

All the buildings on the block were evacuated and power cut off to the area. It is not clear how long those businesses will remain closed.