Cars, home damaged after apartment building wall collapses in Philadelphia's Francisville neighborhood
Cleanup is underway after the top portion of a historic three-story building in Philadelphia's Francisville neighborhood gave way, sending chunks of brick and concrete crashing to the ground.
It happened at the Darrah School Apartments on North 17th Street around 9:30 p.m. Sunday. The Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections (L&I) confirmed part of a parapet wall collapsed.
People who live in the area described confusion in the immediate aftermath.
"The sound was, honestly, I've never heard anything like it in my life," William Friel from Francisville said. "I thought a bomb went off or a plane crash."
No one was hurt, according to the Philadelphia Police Department.
"There are a bunch of people who walk their dogs along this street daily, so potentially this could have come down at the wrong time and taken out a few different people," Christopher Pavelek from Francisville said.
Several parked cars and a nearby home were damaged.
"The center window in our living room, the outer pane got smashed in," Dan Bradley from Francisville said. "I think I was really the only house on this side of the street that got damaged."
Tenants of the apartment building were initially evacuated, but L&I determined it was safe for residents to go back inside. The apartment building once served as a school.
"Today, the property owner will have an engineer on site to re-evaluate the structure and contractor on site to remove any further loose debris that may be in danger of falling," L&I said in a statement.
L&I ordered the property owner to clean up the bricks on the street and put up a fence along the perimeter.
According to L&I, the building is owned by Darrah School Realty. Reached by phone, a representative declined to comment. Residents are left wondering what's being done to prevent a wall collapse from happening again.
"I'm not going to sleep well until I know it's completely stabilized," Friel said. "Because clearly there are pieces of building that look like they're going to fall."