Watch: Facade falls off Philly apartment complex, crushing cars on street

The facade of an apartment building fell apart on Sunday night in Philadelphia's Francisville neighborhood leaving debris in the street and damaging cars below.

Shortly after 9:30 p.m. on Oct. 6, 2024, Philadelphia police and the Philadelphia Fire Board received multiple 911 calls that ranged from an explosion to, what was reported as, a building collapse on the 700 block of North 17th Street, Police Inspector D.F. Pace said.

Surveillance video from a building across the street captured the moment the facade fell to the ground.

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.

Following the collapse, 17th and Folsom streets were closed, Pace said.

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The building was 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 needed to be evacuated.

They would 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 said the collapse was so loud, they thought it was thunder.

"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.