HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) -
Crumbling buildings continue to be an issue in Harrisburg. A building collapse Sunday afternoon is the latest example of the problem.
It happened on the 1700 block of Briggs Streeet in the Allison Hill section of the city.
"We were getting ready to watch football, today's the first day of the season. We're getting ready to watch and we heard this big crash," said Bonnie Salsbury, who lives across the street. "We came outside and we had seen smoke from the back and figured the wall fell, then the front wall fell."
Salsbury has lived across the street from the vacant business for three years. Neighbors say it used to be a warehouse for a carnival supply business.
But over the last month, the building has been more than an eyesore. Fire officials say they've been called out for a collapse there at least two other times.
"The building was in a state of disrepair and gravity always wins," said Captain James McHenry, with the Harrisburg City Fire Department. "Precautions were taken in that scene tape was put up to exclude for the collapse zones and barricades had been put up."
But for Salsbury, that's not good enough.
"My grandkids ride bikes, and they were just riding bikes right before it fell," Salsbury said. "Not maybe 15, 20 minutes after they left, the building fell."
Officials say no one got hurt, but calls like this are all too common.
"A little bit more so the last two years, partially because of the weather," said Captain McHenry. "The rain and wind, we had a lot of rain last year. And we've had enough rain this year, the structures that are in bad shape are affected more."
"Somebody could've been walking through there. Even on the street and it fell. They could've got hurt. It needs to come down, it really does."
Fire officials said construction crews will be back on Monday to demolish parts of the building that are still unstable.
