The westbound lane of a block of Second Street through downtown Seymour remains closed a month after a fire broke out in a clothes dryer in an upstairs residence of a building.

Part of an adjacent building’s brick facade collapsed onto the sidewalk and street that day.

All of the bricks have since been cleaned up, but due to the damage, there is still a threat more bricks could fall.

Seymour Mayor Craig Luedeman said the road and alley behind the buildings will remain closed, at the advice of structural engineers, until the buildings are secured.

“All of our structural engineers have told us to keep the road closed until that facade is securely fastened back to the roof,” Luedeman said. “So that road will probably stay closed for a while, until that can happen.”

Luedeman said he was told by engineers who walked through the buildings that the remainder of the brick facade could fall because there’s not a lot holding it in place.

“They said if the bricks fell, they could damage the glass windows on buildings across the street,” Luedeman said.

He also said the engineers thought the blocked-off area was too narrow and recommended even more of the street be closed.

It’s not known how long the process of securing the buildings and cleaning up the damage will take, but Seymour Main Street hopes the organization’s involvement will get things rolling.

Tom Goecker, president of the Seymour Main Street board of directors, said the goal is to save the building that housed Hair Force Beauty Academy and Second Street Styles at 110 W. Second St.

To do that, Main Street is working to purchase the building from owner Alan Killey.

“If we are able to acquire it, we want to bring it back to life,” Goecker said. “Our plans would be to stabilize the building, put a new roof on it and then put it on the market.”

Read the full story in Saturday’s Tribune and online at tribtown.com.