Oct 06, 2024
An apartment building partially collapsed Sunday night in Philadelphia’s Francisville neighborhood leaving debris in the street and residents feeling unsafe. Shortly after 9:30 p.m., Philadelphia police and the Philadelphia Fire Board received multiple 911 calls that ranged from an explosion to a building collapse on the 700 block of N. 17th Street, Police Inspector D.F. Pace said. Darrah School Apartments is located at that address. Upon arrival, officials said, a portion of a building, which is a converted school building, had collapsed and fallen off into the street. No one was injured on the street or inside the building. At this time 17th Street and Folsom Street are closed, Pace said. The building is currently being inspected by the city of Philadelphia’s Fire Board and the Department of Licenses and Inspections to evaluate how structurally sound the building is and determine if it needs to be evacuated. They will also determine if any nearby buildings, such as homes in the area, need to be evacuated. Nothing has been determined at this time, Pace said. “Might just be a shelter in place situation,” Pace said. He noted that could change depending on the outcome of the inspection. A resident who lives inside the building recalled what happened. “I was just hanging out in my apartment and all of a sudden I hear a huge crashing noise. I thought it was thunder, so I was looking around, didn’t notice anything. I looked outside and I see all the debris on the floor,” Daniel Siy a resident in the apartment building said. Pace said the building itself seems intact; it was just an outer portion of the building came down. “Kind of in shock, don’t really know what to do for the next couple of days,” Siy said, noting he wouldn’t feel safe going back into the building. Sign up for our Breaking newsletter to get the most urgent news stories in your inbox.
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