Officials are investigating two collapses and one partial collapse that occurred in Philadelphia Saturday.
At least one person was hurt during the first incident, when a 3-story house collapsed in Philadelphia's Kensington neighborhood early Saturday morning.
The incident occurred along the 2000 block of East Sterner Street, near the intersection of Frankford and Lehigh avenues, around 4:45 a.m., according to officials.
Firefighters reported a strong odor of gas and Philadelphia Gas Works crews were called to the scene to investigate, authorities said.
Rescuers rushed a 43-year-old man to Temple University Hospital. He was treated for minor injuries and is expected to make a full recovery. During the collapse, one of the man's dogs was killed.
"The gentleman got up in the middle of the night and went to the bathroom on the second floor," said Jen Leary of Red Paw Relief. "As he was in the bathroom it all kind of pancaked in on itself. He's very lucky to be alive."
Leary told NBC10 she and her team eventually found the man's other dog alive in the rubble as well as his cat alive underneath the concrete.
"The cat was kind of poking his head in and out of the rubble," Leary said.
The city's Department of Licenses and Inspections declared the property imminently dangerous and secured the area with fencing and barricades. They are working to contact the owner of the property and plan to later demolish it.
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A vacant home on the 600 block of North Union Street in West Philadelphia also collapsed around 8:30 a.m. Saturday.
The front two thirds of the property, which was used for storage, collapsed onto the sidewalk. Police blocked off Mount Vernon and Union streets due to the collapse and all utilities were disconnected. No injuries were reported.
The owner of the property also gave L&I authorization to demolish it. L&I officials are also working to safely remove the owner’s tools, which were stored inside the building.
Finally a Domino’s Pizza restaurant in South Philadelphia partially collapsed Saturday afternoon. Dozens of loose bricks dislodged from the second story building on the 700 block of South Street around 2 p.m. No one was evacuated or injured during the incident.
The owner of the building will hire his contractor to repair the property. L&I officials closed the foot-way surrounding the structure. Customers will have another entrance to the Domino’s for the time being.
Officials have not yet revealed the causes of the collapses. However, they believe freezing and thawing due to the recent warmer temperatures following the bitter cold likely played a role. They also said they typically see several building collapses during this time of year as Winter comes to an end and Spring approaches.
