'My God, It Shook The House': Neighbors Sound Alarm After Part Of Abandoned Building Collapses In Carroll Park
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Eyewitnesses say it sounded like an earthquake when part of a house came crashing down. It happened on the 1400 block of North 54th Street in the Carroll Park section of Philadelphia on Sunday.
Neighbors say they've tried without luck to get the city to take care of it.
Residents on Media Street say they've been trying to warn city officials of the imminent collapse of an abandoned building on their block for a while.
On Sunday, the building finally came down.
"Sounded like an earthquake," Napoleon Samuel, a neighbor, said. "My God, it shook the house. But we pretty well knew what it was."
Samuel lives next to the now crumbled home and says he's made multiple attempts to get the house that neighbors say has been vacant for more than half a decade taken care of.
"We called L&I at least three or four times," Samuel said. "We called the fire department at least three or four times. It was no surprise it was going to collapse."
Lamar Bundy was taking a Sunday snooze across the street when it happened.
"I heard a lot of people talking about it and they wondered why it's still there, why hasn't anyone taken it down? So I guess it was a matter of time before it was going to come down," Bundy said.
Samuel took it upon himself to lock the gate to the backyard, where he says his father-in-law once grew tomatoes.
Neighbors say electricians recently cut power to the home, a move that possibly saved the entire block from losing theirs.
"To have that type of blight in an area where we keep it clean, you have retired people here, thank God nobody was hurt," Samuel said.
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At this time, Philadelphia L&I still has not issued comment on the collapse.
Neighbors say it could be two weeks before an assessment can be made on whether or not the building can be demoed.
CBS3's Dan Koob contributed to this report.
