Vacant building collapses on Staten Island, neighbors displaced
TOMPKINSVILLE, Staten Island (WABC) -- The rear of a vacant building collapsed in the Tompkinsville section of Staten Island Wednesday morning, displacing neighbors.
No one was injured in the collapse of the three-story Sherman Avenue building at around 5:30 a.m.
Neighboring homes at 107 and 111 Sherman Avenue were evacuated, displacing about a dozen residents.
The collapse was so loud that it woke up people in the neighboring homes.
They will have to remain out of their houses until the vacant building is demolished.
Neighbors said the home has been vacant for at least five years, and that they have been raising concerns about the structure for a long time.
One landlord, Anna Bunina, had an entire deck taken out in the back when the structure came down. She says she had been complaining to National Grid about the need for the gas to be shut off in the vacant building weeks ago.
Fire officials told her that the gas was still on at the time of the collapse.
"What if we were on the deck?" Bunina said. "Our tenants have a 2-year-old child. Thank God they were inside. They were awake at 5 a.m. cooking breakfast, and they were the people closest."
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