Two families have been displaced after a vacant home next door to them collapsed in Miami early Thursday, sending debris through the roof of one home and heavily damaging another amid heavy rainfall.
The incident happened at 1790 Northwest 3rd Street in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood.
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According to Miami Fire Rescue officials, the abandoned four-plex fell to pieces around 3 a.m., scattering debris.
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Surveillance video from a nearby home showed the moment the building came crashing down.
The families that lived next door and behind the complex escaped unharmed but both homes suffered damage.
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The fallen structure was set to be demolished, and already had no roof, according to Miami Fire Rescue spokesman Ignatius Carroll.
“It’s been vacant for two months,” Carroll said. He added that the heavy rains Wednesday and early Thursday likely played a role in the building’s collapse.
"We're gonna look at a combination of factors that may have contributed to this collapsing," Carroll said. "We understand the roof being removed obviously allowed a lot of the wind and water to accumulate inside."
Carlos Hernandez, who used to live in the collapsed structure, said he was sad but not surprised it fell.
"The city told us to get out for like the past three years and we left like two and a half months ago. Imagine if we would've stayed there still," Hernandez said.
Carroll said a couple and their adult son were in one adjacent home at the time of the collapse, which caused major damage to their roof.
"We believe that the noise from the initial structure collapse probably woke them up and got them out of that area before their roof collapsed," Carroll said.
At the other home, a duplex, a family with young children had to evacuate after their building was deemed unstable, Carroll said.
Investigators brought out cadaver dogs and bulldozers to remove debris, and check for anyone who might have been inside the structure when it fell, since a homeless person had been known to freguent the building, Carroll said.
Some animals were also displaced due to the collapse.
