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Partial Hill Collapse Onto Paterson Road, Misses Animal Control Worker

PATERSON, N.J. (CBSNewYork) - Weather may be to blame for a partial hillside collapse in Paterson.

The incident took place Tuesday morning at 44 Ryle Road.

Part of the hillside came tumbling down on the road below, forcing police to shut down the road.

All of the rain we've been getting likely helped bring down the massive rocks from the cliff onto a road that many students use to walk to a local high school, CBS2's Christine Sloan reported.

Thankfully no one was on the road at the time and no one was injured, Sloan reported.

Paterson Hill Collapse
Debris after a hill collapsed on Ryle Road in Paterson, NJ on June 2, 2015. (credit: CBS2)

Authorities have set up barricades near the slide.

Employees of a nearby animal shelter said they knew something was wrong when they heard noises coming from the cliff.

"I came out here to take a look and I was standing right where that pile of rocks are," said Animal Control Officer John DeCando. "Looking up and I see a couple of things fall a little at a time and Mike yelled to me, 'John, you'd better come in here.' As soon as I walked in there that's when the entire mountain collapsed and it sounded like a plane hitting a mountain -- that's what it sounded like. The entire ground shook."

"He walks down back towards me and we walk to the door," said Animal Control Officer Michael Rodriguez. "All of a sudden when we get to the door you hear, 'BOOM' and the ground shook. It sounded like a plane hit the wall. We came back outside and all this was on the ground. Literally two minutes after John walked away from the area, that stuff came down."

The Fire Department secured the area and do not believe any more rocks will come down, reported Sloan.

This is obviously a problem all across the Tri-State Area since there are similar cliffs, and people should be looking out for that in weather like this, reported Sloan.

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