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.
Neighbors are shocked and concerned after a partial row home collapse Thursday morning in Philadelphia's Tioga-Nicetown section. Neighbors told Action News that three people -- believed to be two teens and one adult -- were still inside the building at the time of the collapse.
Luckily, no one was hurt.
"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. 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. 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. Action News has reached out to the department asking why that didn't happen.
"L&I was out here," State Senator Sharif Street told Action News, adding that "L&I needs to have the resources to make sure they are doing the right inspections. " 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.
""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.
"We are going to ask the Department of Licenses and Inspections to come out and do a neighborhood survey -- take a look at what's happening in the neighborhood," Bass said. "Let's not wait for a building to collapse. "
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