The Philadelphia Fire Department was called to the 1800 block of Brunner Street around 4:36 a.m.
"I heard something hit the top of my truck, and I got out to investigate, and I saw that bricks were falling out of the house, so I just started running. A couple seconds later, the whole house came down," said Jae Young, who was sitting in his truck when the siding came crumbling down.
Young alerted the three siblings who were asleep inside. Neighbors said the siblings are in their teens to early twenties and that their mother was at work at the time. The Red Cross is assisting the family. Luckily, no one was hurt.
The Action Cam was at the scene, where insulation could be seen exposed from the building, with piles of bricks on the ground.
"My daughter heard a boom. She thought it was a car accident at the end of the block. So she came out and looked out the door, and she said she saw bricks in the street and a downed wire. A wire was sparking," Latifah Anderson told Action News.
Anderson lives on the same block and said she noticed issues with the house that partially collapsed months ago.
"It was protruding out at the bottom, so it looked like it needed some attention," she said.
Now, neighbors say they are worried about the structural integrity of their own homes, which were built around the same time as the one that partially collapsed.
Action News has learned that this particular building was already on the city's radar and was deemed unsafe by the Department of Licensing & Inspections in July of 2025. The department gave the property owner a deadline of September 2025 to bring the building up to code, otherwise it would either be vacated or demolished.
A spokesperson for L& I said the property owner repeatedly failed to take corrective action. The department has not yet responded to questions about why further enforcement was not taken earlier.
"L&I was out here," State Senator Sharif Street (D - PA) told Action News, adding that "L&I needs to have the resources to make sure they are doing the right inspections."
Neighbors said they had noticed problems with the structure for months.
"It was protruding out at the bottom, so it looked like it needed some attention," Anderson said.
"Residents actually expressed concern about this structure and said that any day it will fall. At that time, L&I said they will come out and check this structure. What happened?" community advocate Tosha Taylor said.
Philadelphia Councilmember Cindy Bass said the city needs to take a more proactive approach in monitoring properties that are at risk.
"This really didn't have to happen and it really should not happen. We have the tools and technologies in place in the city of Philadelphia so that we should have some sort of a rotating system where if a building is in danger, it's monitored, it's on the radar," Bass said. "It shouldn't just happen that it falls apart and then we're all out here talking about it. This should be much more of a proactive action by L&I."
"Whoever was responsible for the property tried to get some work done but probably didn't have the resources needed," Street said. "It sort of underlines the larger issue that you have folks in this community, whether they're small landlords that don't have a lot of money for repairs or they are homeowners who don't have enough money for repairs. We need to have more resources to help people maintain the existing housing they're living in."
Street said officials are looking into programs that could offer preventative resources.
"Those programs would give resources so that it doesn't get to this point where a wall is falling. People could have been hurt and it's likely people are going to be homeless," he said.
Street said he is concerned about the stability of other homes on the block.
"Are there other people who have issues. Is there a systemic issue?" he said. "When you look at them, there's several houses here that are - what we call, buckling."
Residents echoed those fears, concerned about their own homes.
"These houses are so old, that's why they're falling, and the people that own them disappear," said Mercedes Wulf.
Bass and Street said they are urging L&I to conduct a neighborhood survey as soon as possible. L&I said the collapsed home remains unsafe and will be demolished; crews were on site throughout the day.
The collapse occurred not far from the site of another major incident - a gas-related explosion on the 1900 block of West Bristol Street in June of last year that killed one resident, injured two others and destroyed at least three homes.
Taylor said the community is still recovering.
"The houses still don't have windows. Some people were forced out of their homes. To this day, they have not been back to their houses," she said.