Man rescued from SW Philadelphia house collapse
SOUTHWEST PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Firefighters worked feverishly to rescue a man trapped under rubble after a house collapsed in Southwest Philadelphia.
It happened around 2:30 a.m. Saturday on the 6100 block of Yocum Street.
"It was loud, I heard it. I was laying down on the sofa watching TV, and I heard it. It scared the heck out of me," said Anne Adams of Southwest Philadelphia.
What she heard was a house crashing down.
But the house wasn't empty. There was a man inside.
He was being crushed by the rubble. The home collapsed right on him.
Fire officials say when crews got to the scene, the house was flattened and they began their initial assessment, and that's when they heard a man screaming for help and they started the rescue.
"You could hear him hollering (for help)," said Cassie Sanders of Southwest Philadelphia.
Action News was there as the man was pulled out and rushed to the hospital.
No word yet on his condition.
Sanders lives right next door to the home that fell.
She says the victim is a homeless man.
"He was a squatter, and he went in there cause he'd usually come in there around 12 or 1 o'clock at night, and he was sleeping in there," said Sanders.
We're also told this section of row homes were in the process of demolition.
"They was tearing them down," said Adams.
Many here say they're not surprised this happened, and that it's a miracle the man inside wasn't killed.
They add the houses were unsafe.
"Those homes was always a mess," said Shantel White of Southwest Philadelphia.
No official word yet on the cause of the collapse.
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