'Sounded Like An Explosion': Dozens Of Bricks Crush Vehicle After Home Partially Collapses In Graduate Hospital, Officials Say
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Surveillance video shows part of a building collapse. You can see a thick cloud of debris and people running for cover.
Neighbors say it sounded like an explosion. The partial collapse sent dozens of bricks to the ground, crushing an SUV at Graduate Hospital
No one was injured when that house fall apart.
"It just sounded like an explosion," neighbor Nate Wingard said.
And it must have felt like it for two women who narrowly missed being hit by falling debris. Surveillance video obtained exclusively by Eyewitness News shows the moment the home partially collapsed.
"You can call it an acts of God or whatever you want to call it, but things like this do happen," Wingard said.
It all took place minutes after 1 p.m. on the 1700 block of Montrose Street. At least one person inside the home got out without a scratch.
The same can't be said of a silver SUV parked in the empty lot beside the house.
Its owner, Rudolph Ballard, says he was in the house watching TV when the collapse happened. Considering the condition of his SUV, perhaps it was a move that saved his life.
"All the bricks on the car, totaled. It was a good thing I was in the house," Ballard said.
Demolition crews cleared the crushed mass as those living in the home gathered their belongings and made plans to stay with friends.
A spokesperson for the city's Licenses and Inspections Department says they are unsure what caused the collapse. There was no construction happening on the home and the damage is so severe that the house will have to be demolished.
"The city does come together. The neighborhoods do come together. I feel confident that the people around here are going to help this person out and certainly I will do anything I can," Wingard said.
L&I says the home will likely be torn down Saturday.
