Michael Bushnell
Northeast News

A house in the 400 block of Bellefontaine partially collapsed Wednesday afternoon following heavy rains over the previous two days. The house was known to many as the “cougar” house due to the large, plastic puma on the front porch. East Patrol CIO Greg Smith, Pat Byrd and social worker Trena Miller had been attempting to secure contractors through some HUD connections at the time of the collapse. Interestingly, that project was due to start this coming Friday and the first item to be removed was going to be the front porch.

John Baccala, Community Liason with the KCMO Neighborhood and Housing Services Department, gave a brief update on the current state of the structure, which was taken off the dangerous buildings list after the debris from the porch had been removed from the property. During the last inspection, the structure was deemed to be safe, but a new inspection will take place to determine whether or not that remains the case.