By Jennifer Warren
“I come home and they're destroying my garage,” said Torres, looking over the vacant cement lot where her garage once stood.
On Dec. 26, just the day after Christmas, contractors hired by the Long Island Rail Road to demolish three buildings on LIRR property abutting Torres' land, inadvertently toppled some of the buildings' remains onto her garage.
Describing the canopy of roses that once crowned her garage entrance, she swept her hand in a wide arch above her head and then motioned to the clipped stub of vines on the ground. Torres, who has lived in her Richmond Hill home for 20 years, said she had just cleaned and refinished the garage before this happened.
Both Torres' garage at 91-13 121st St. and that of her neighbor, Alice Serrano at 91-15 121st St. were destroyed.
The contractors, Safeway Environmental Corporation of Whitestone, were instructed to demolish and remove three unused facilities from the Morris Park Yard at 121st Street.
“In the process of demolishing the third and last building, a portion of the building collapsed and some of the building debris fell on two detached garages,” said LIRR spokesman Sam Zambuto.
The demolished LIRR buildings were ordered taken down because they were no longer in use, said Zambuto. The LIRR did not elaborate on future plans for the recently gutted Morris Park Yard.
Julie Ortiz, Torres' daughter in-law, lives just two doors away on the same street. She noted that the back garages were always a favorite spot for neighborhood children when the weather was warmer.
“Thank God it wasn't during the summertime,” she said, “because the kids play back there.”
Residents said that shortly after the accident police, fire trucks, building inspectors and representatives from the mayor's office were on the scene surveying the damage and clearing away the wreckage. They were also estimating the rebuilding costs, Ortiz said.
The residents' garages will be replaced by the contractors, the LIRR reported.
