Multiple people hurt after second-story apartment floor collapses near IUP
INDIANA, Pa. (KDKA) - Pennsylvania State Police said 12 people were treated by EMS after an apartment collapsed near the Indiana University of Pennsylvania campus late Saturday night.
At least eight people went to the hospital by EMS or private car with minor or serious injuries.
It happened at Elm by Traverse Commons off Copper Beech Drive in White Township. Sources told KDKA IUP students were celebrating 'IUPatties,' their unofficial St. Patrick's Day celebration, which they consider the largest party weekend of the year.
Video obtained by KDKA shows chaos erupting inside an apartment after the second floor caved in, along with the people inside. In it, you can see folks hanging onto appliances and furniture with nowhere to escape.
Kara Banda and her husband live feet away.
"We heard the music getting louder and louder," Banda said.
Moments later, they heard something else.
"It sounded like just things like crashing and smashing all over the place, almost like a car crash," Banda said.
State police said they got called around 11:50 p.m. Saturday to respond to someone lying on the road. When troopers arrived, they encountered a large group of people outside the apartment complex, who told them a floor collapsed.
IUP student Corryn Miller said three of her friends were there and raced over when she heard the news.
"They were just having a good time, and they said that they were dancing, and they heard a large like crack sound," Miller said. "They were really, really shaken up. They were having like a really hard time getting their words out and just talking in general."
She said, thankfully, they only suffered cuts, and one may have a broken leg.
"A lot of the kitchen appliances and the washer, the dryer, the stove, all of that started to fall off the ceiling and actually start to dangle like on top of them," Miller said.
Her friends told her 50 to 60 people were at the party and broke the windows of the first floor to get out.
"There's actually some people that were like holding up these appliances because people were underneath trying to, like, find a way out," Miller said.
Miller hopes others take this as a lesson the next time they plan to go out.
"The party was done in good spirits, but you have to take into account other things that could possibly happen that could end up injuring other people, and I think a lot of times the students here don't necessarily do that," Miller said.
It's unclear what caused the floor to collapse. Police are still trying to figure out how many people were inside.
Some injuries happened as people exited from the broken window.
IUP spokesperson Michelle Fryling said they're sorting through names to identify how many students were involved.
"We are prepared to provide whatever support our students need, be it temporary housing, or long-term housing," Fryling said.
Fryling said they know many local landlords have capacity sizes in rental agreements, but she didn't know if that was the case here.
KDKA reached out to Cardinal Group, the management company of the complex, for comment but has not heard back at this time.
