Parts of a building being renovated at 19th and H streets in Northeast Washington collapsed Thursday afternoon during a storm.
D.C. Fire and EMS said the building was unoccupied at the time.
Pictures shared by D.C. Fire and EMS on social media show scaffolding on top of a nearby car and stacked in a ramshackle pile on top of brick portions of the building. Officials said a row house that was occupied and is attached to the building suffered no structural issues.
Search and rescue dogs scoured the site and didn’t find anyone trapped in the building debris, fire officials said in an update.
A Ring doorbell camera video taken by nearby neighbors and shared with WTTG-TV shows the scaffolding coming down.
One neighbor, Skip Keats, told WTTG-TV: “The building was leaning this way. The floor above what remains was leaning to the north. The floor above it — leaning to the south. It was a matter of time before the entire building pancaked.”
The District’s government has issued at least 19 stop-work orders for the building, the most recent in 2023, according to the TV station.
