A burning building partially collapsed in Northeast D.C. early Thursday after a driver crashed a car into the brick building and ended up completely inside, authorities say. A day care center not yet open for the day was next door.
The driver crashed into a building in the 2000 block of Bunker Hill Road NE, near the Maryland border, about 7:45 a.m., D.C. Fire and EMS said.
News4 video shows a smoking building with severe damage to its front. Firefighters were using hoses to try to put out flames.
The building houses an adult day center and is next door to a day care center. One adult was inside the day care center.
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No one was inside the building at the time of the crash but those who watched it unfold said they were glad everyone was able to get out safely. As for the daycare next door, workers told News4 they will be closed for the foreseeable future.
“I was leaning on the wall in my office, which is directly connected to their building, and I felt the boom. I thought it was a gas leak or something like that, because I knew they weren’t open yet,” an employee said. “When I came out, I saw the bricks on the ground and stepped over, and her car was inside the building.”
The employee said bricks started slamming to the ground and on top of the car a few minutes after the crash, and then the fire started.
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“The car was already in there and we could hear the lady screaming to the top of her lungs, like, ‘Help! Help! Help!'” another person in the area said.
Donjale Williams was next door inside the Children of the Future Daycare. She and Shalay Bristoe, who had just gotten there, started to fight the flames shooting out from the partially collapsed building.
“I was like, ‘Let's get some fire extinguishers,’” Bristoe said. “Now we’re sitting over there trying to do the fire extinguishers, but that didn’t work, and we couldn’t get into the building at all.”
The building and car were on fire and the woman was trapped in the car when fire crews arrived, the department said. Firefighters raced to get the woman oxygen, get her out of the car and simultaneously fight the fire.
“They were met with a situation they were trained for but we very rarely see,” said D.C. Fire and EMS Chief John Donnelly. “Put air on the woman that was trapped so she could breathe, while simultaneously fighting the fire and extracting the women from the car.”
Firefighters were able to get the woman out through a multi-step process. She was taken to a hospital with serious injuries but was expected to survive.
Crews removed the debris brick by brick before they deemed it safe to remove the car. Just before 2 p.m. Thursday, the car was taken away with bent metal and tires dragging across the street.
D.C. police and fire say they were still working to determine what exactly caused the driver to crash into the building.
News4 spoke with the owner of the building, Nagender Madabaram. He says he’s owned the building for a year and leases the space to Global Resources and Support, a company that provides a host of services, including for mental health patients.
“This was a once-in-a-career type of run; this is pretty high-risk being that there’s some structural issues with the building after a car crashes through it,” said Lt. James Hurley with D.C. Fire and EMS.
“Horrible,” he said. “I never imagined that a building looks like this after a fire. This is my first experience.”
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The block was closed to traffic, and DC Fire and EMS asked people to avoid the area.
