Man survives partial house collapse in North Philadelphia

NORTH PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- It was a startling wake-up call Friday, after part of a house collapsed in North Philadelphia.

Residents of the 2100 block of Fairhill Street in North Philadelphia say it sounded like thunder.

And before they knew it, they saw the man who lived in the home that collapsed lying in his yard.

Howard James tells Action News he knows he should feel lucky to be alive, but right now he's just devastated the home he's lived in for 47 years has to be torn down.

"I can't imagine living nowhere else," said James.

But the place James called home for close to 50 years has now crumbled. The side of it collapsed, and he was inside when it happened.

Howard had been awake, lying on his bed in the second floor bedroom around 7:30 a.m. Friday when he heard creaking and then saw dust.

He covered his head with his hands.

"I was able to roll over as the wall was collapsing," he said. "Kept rolling and rolling. As I was going out the side of the house, a beam slapped me on the side of the head and knocked me up to the wall."

When he came to, James found himself in his yard.

Wood and brick ended up in piles of rubble. Yet part of James' home remained intact, including some old medals hanging on an upstairs wall.

James refused to go to the hospital.

"What's hurting me the most right now is my heart," he told Action News.

James says there was a smaller collapse in the lower side of a nearby wall last Friday.

He went to Philadelphia Licenses and Inspections this week to get a permit to make repairs, and a contractor was due out on Friday.

He admits he was warned not to stay here but never imagined this.

"The guys came out to talk to me," he said. "They helped me. They did their job."

James thinks the rain overnight loosened some of the bricks on the side wall.

He's been a tailor all his life and wanted to go inside Friday to get his sewing machine, but officials told him it's just not safe.

"I'm alive," he said. "I'm not going to take that for granted. I'm alive. That's what counts the most. I'm alive."

James said he plans to stay with family while he figures out what he will do next.