Historic Philly Building Partially Collapses, Crushing Cars on Street

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City officials and crew members are working to clean up a huge mess in Philadelphia’s Francisville neighborhood after a portion of a historic building collapsed.

The Darrah School Apartments — located on the 700 block of North 17th Street — reportedly collapsed. There is no official word on what caused the collapse to the historic building.

The Darrah School Apartments was once a middle school, converted into apartment complexes in 2016.

Philadelphia Police and the Philadelphia Fire Board received multiple 911 calls that ranged from an explosion to a building collapse Police Inspector D.F. Pace told NBC10. Nearly all of the brick along the entire top portion of the building fell several stories to the ground.

“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, told NBC10

Huge pieces of concrete and debris fell into the street, damaging nearby parked cars. Fortunately, no one was reported injured during the downfall as officials assessed the damage.

“It kind of feels like a lot of developers around here just kind of operate free will and they probably don’t have enough funding to make sure these older buildings are up to snuff,” Brian Snelling, of Francisville, told Action News.

Pace said the buildings structure still seems intact; as an outer portion of the building came down. Officials are unsure if this mishap require shelter for any tenants, but that ruling could change depending on the final inspection report.