'The dining room was gone': 11 displaced after house collapses in Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- A house collapsed in Philadelphia's Logan neighborhood on Wednesday, leaving almost a dozen people displaced.

That includes the homeowners and their neighbors, who were impacted by the sudden collapse.

It happened on the 4500 block of Broad Street just after 2:30 p.m.

Video at the scene captured the back of the home, which had completely collapsed.

The homeowner told Action News she was inside when the house fell apart, along with her friend, her dog, and her cats.

"Heard a crack, came down the steps. The dining room was gone, and the kitchen, and the hallway, just fell over," recalled Antoinette Cheatham from Logan.

Cheatham says she was in shock as she watched some of the rooms in her home fall like dominoes.

City officials say the collapse happened on the side load-bearing wall of the home. It also impacted the home next door to Cheatham.

Utilities were disconnected and tenants were asked to leave temporarily as the investigation continues. In total, 11 people were displaced due to this incident.

The incident startled most neighbors in the area, like Aisha Pleasant.

"I just heard a big screeching sound, almost like a car accident," she said.

An empty lot is all that separated Pleasant's home from the one that collapsed. The lot used to have another home standing on it, until several years ago when that fell apart as well.

"Collapsed the same way in the back and then they had to take it down," Pleasant said.

In March 2021, Action News reported on another collapsed home on the same block. This incident impacted two homes on the corner of Broad Street and Belfield Avenue.

Cheatham says she's lived on the block for years, and only recently started to notice issues with her walls.

"You see a little crack here. You see a little crack there. And then I noticed on the outside of the house, it started splitting. So that's when I called the contractor," she said.

She was in the process of trying to get work done when the property collapsed. Now, the city plans to hold a demolition bid.

Cheatham says she and her husband are searching for temporary housing. As they figure out their next steps, she says she's left with perspective.

"God's on my side because we were in there and we didn't get hurt," said Cheatham, noting that she, her friend, and her dog made it out OK.

Cheatham says her cats are still unaccounted for.