A woman is seriously hurt and a burning building partially collapsed in Northeast D.C. early Thursday after the woman crashed a car fully inside the brick building, 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, at about 7:45 a.m., DC 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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“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.
“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.
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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.
Firefighters were able to get the woman out. She was taken to a hospital with serious injuries but was expected to survive.
The gray sedan was still inside the building as of 11 a.m.
It wasn’t immediately clear why the driver crashed.
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The block was closed to traffic, and DC Fire and EMS asked people to avoid the area.
