Ring camera captures partial building collapse in Francisville: 'Loudest crash I ever heard'
PHILADELPHIA - Neighbors told FOX 29's Cheyenne Corin it's a miracle no one was hurt after a partial building collapse in the Francisville section of Philadelphia Sunday night.
In the aftermath, many bricks lay on the ground that fell from the very top of this building.
William Friel, who lives next to the collapsed building, described the event.
"Boom, just this loud the loudest crash I ever heard," Friel said. "The sound of it was so loud, it just kept replaying over and over again in our heads, and it was traumatizing."
Miraculous video showing the moment chunks of bricks and cinder block fell from the Darrah School Apartments in Francisville.
Philadelphia fire and police officials say just after 9:30 Sunday night, they received multiple calls for what people thought was an explosion on the 700 block of North 17th Street.
Christopher Pavelec, who captured the collapse with his Ring camera, recounted his initial thoughts.
"It sounded like an explosion. First we thought it was a gas line exploding. One of the houses down there had blown up because we looked out the window and we saw just rubble," Pavelec explained.
Friel provided more details about his experience. "It sounded like a bomb dropped, a plane crashed. We didn't know what it was, but we ran upstairs before even looking upstairs because we felt our house shake and thought we may need to get out of this house, grabbed the kids," he described.
But it wasn’t an explosion; it was part of the façade of this renovated old school building collapsing.
Apartment building partially collapses in North Philadelphia
First responders worked to tackle a partial building collapse that occurred in Francisville Sunday night.
Friel continued, "I started scanning to see if there was a body, and I just had this fear I was going to see somebody underneath."
Somehow, the debris that crashed onto the sidewalk on Folsom Street didn't hurt anyone, but it did damage some cars and trees.
"What's going to happen to the building? Is it structurally sound? Is there anything wrong with our building? Is more going to collapse?" Pavelec wondered.
That night, people who live in the apartments were evacuated, but Monday many of them went back inside despite a sign on the door warning residents to keep out. Building inspectors have also been on the scene assessing the damage.
Friel also commented on the building's structural integrity.
"It does look like it's just the façade, there's clearly some façade that's about to fall down kind of right about where we are standing, but I think structurally the building looks okay," he reassured.
Investigators are still working to determine what exactly caused a portion of this building to collapse.