Landslides in a town on Newfoundland's west coast claimed their first house Wednesday, as officials restricted traffic on a nearby highway.

A series of landslides have caused several structures to tumble down a steep cliff in Daniel's Harbour.
(CBC)

The house, a bungalow, slid down a steep cliff in Daniel's Harbour.

"It has toppled off the edge of the embankment … and is now gone," CBC reporter Bernice Hillier said early Wednesday afternoon.

"People here are pretty upset about this. They, I guess, didn't think that this was going to happen," Hillier said.

"Here's a house where a man has worked all his life, and put so much into, raised a family, and now it's gone."

RCMP have closed traffic in both directions on Route 430, better known as the Northern Peninsula Highway.

Traffic was first closed after midnight, but reopened for a few hours on Wednesday morning.

Hillier said crews are now trying to find an alternate route to the Northern Peninsula Highway.

The precautions were taken in the wake of a series of landslides — including a large slide on Sunday morning that pushed tonnes of soil into the Gulf of St. Lawrence — that have put a series of Daniel's Harbour structures at risk.

Six homes and one business have been cleared because they are in danger of sliding down a cliff.

(CBC)

Owners of two of the homes were told earlier this week to evacuate. Orders for the rest had been made last fall, in the wake of a massive landslide last October.

Derrick Biggin, who left his home on Monday, said he salvaged most of his material possessions, but that he is losing much more than that.

"When those houses do end up in the drink, it's going to be very dramatic to everyone involved. … It's part of you," Biggin said.

"It's been part of you for 30-plus years and it's hard to get over those things."

Biggin said he expects to lose his house before the week is out.

A series of small landslides after Sunday's massive tumble have chewed away at the narrowing safety zone leading to the highway, which runs along the side of a vertical cliff where all the slides have occurred.