2 injured after building partially collapses in Germantown: officials

2 injured after building partially collapses in Germantown

At least two people were injured after officials say a building partially collapsed in Philadelphia's Germantown neighborhood Wednesday afternoon.

PHILADELPHIA - Two people were hurt when the front of a building collapsed in Germantown on Wednesday.

Building collapse on Hansberry Street 

What we know:

Fire officials reported that two individuals were standing on the sidewalk around 2:30 p.m. when debris fell and injured them. 

The fire chief confirmed that no one was inside the house at the time of the collapse. 

Emergency crews spent the evening cleaning up, securing what is left of the house and the loose debris. 

License and inspection crews were on scene along with the fire marshal. PGW also responded.

The condition of the injured individuals is still being determined. 

What they're saying:

"You heard boom!" said Natalie Butler who came outside her home on the block both shocked and relieved.

 "I just was glad and grateful that nobody lived in there," she said about the three-story building at 177 Hansberry that collapsed. The fire chief told Fox29 off camera that two people walking out front were hurt by falling debris.

 One neighbor says the collapse was bound to happen.

 "We was expecting this to happen, but it just came all of a sudden," said Tawanda Jenkins. "The roof was kind of sunken in and all we needed was one good rainstorm or snowstorm," she said. Jenkins too says no one lived there.

 "No. Just the raccoons," she said.

"We gotta wait to hear what the fire marshal and any other kind of reports were after they do their due diligence," said PA State Rep. Darisha Parker.

 Bre Schnetzka lives a few doors away and says the house was in this condition when she moved here July of 2022.

"It feels a little inevitable. That house it has been vacant and had been marked uninhabitable for years, so I am not really surprised. But I hope no one got hurt," she said.