'Could hear the windows buckling': St. Thomas, Ont. tenants evacuated after apartment collapsed

Fifteen people are out of their homes after the foundation of a small apartment building collapsed late Wednesday night in St. Thomas, Ont.

Ethan Plourde was in his second floor apartment when he heard a noise, which sounded like “sheet metal crashing”.Ethan Plourde (left) and neighbour David Umbrio are out of their homes after their apartment collapsed on Wednesday Dec. 27, 2023 (Source: Brent Lale/CTV News London)

“Then you could hear the windows like buckling, was pretty intense,” says Plourde.

“If we just slept through the night and let it be, I would have been falling through that hole with my dog this morning.”

The building at 68 Hiawatha St. is buckling in the middle, and only the walls on the north and south side are holding it up. If you look from the east side, you can see all the way under the foundation to the west.

“The whole front wall here is gone,” says Plourde, who had just the clothes on his back.

“The bottom window’s a 45-degree angle and the whole buildings bowed.”

Living right below Ethan is David Umbrio. He managed to get out with a couple belongings, but was not able to get his pet.

“I have a very expensive 250 gallon fish tank with exotic fish,” says Umbrio.

“I was hoping to try and save them by I don't think that's going to be humanly possible”.

He didn’t have time to drain his tank, or get his fish into a bucket of water before being told to evacuate. With the hydro disconnected, and no gas, he’s not expecting his fish to be still alive.The foundation of 68 Hiawatha St. in St. Thomas has collapsed, forcing 15 people out of their homes (Source: Brent Lale/CTV London)

At first, he didn’t believe his neighbour when he banged on his door.

“I saw a firefighter right in the hallway, and he's like ‘Sir I'm sorry, but you need to go,’” says Umbrio.

“I gathered like a handful of items that were literally right in front of me, and they were telling us we all needed to leave like right away the building's about to collapse and we needed to get out immediately”.

Both tenants say work was being done on the building recently by a new landlord who purchased the building a few months ago, and was “planning using a budget of $250,000 to do renovations and repairs”, according to someone who knows the landlord but wished to remain anonymous.

Hours later, fencing has been put around the building, the roads are closed, and the fire department has gone back to the scene.

“We're making sure the scene is secure and according to the Chief Building Official, the building looks like it's possible that it may come down today on its own,” says Kim Destun, chief fire prevention officer for the City of St. Thomas.

“Both houses on either side of it have also been cleared out for the day at least to find out what's going to happen to them”.

A couple who lives to the west are out of their home, as well as five people from an Airbnb to the North of the building. Those seven along with eight who live in the apartment are currently out.

“Thankfully everyone got out okay, they didn't weren't able to take much with them,” says Destun.

“Victim services was called the scene and they've got them put up the hotel for the night and they'll take care of them.”

As for the tenants, they just want to know whether they’ll ever be able to retrieve personal items.

“We have a meeting with some city people later today and they're going to help us get us back on our feet,” says Plourde.

“Hopefully we can get back in here sometime soon to get our belongings because everything I owned inside the unit.”

“We all are thankful that we got out, and we're all thankful that we got pretty much all of our animals out but this is our entire lives,” says Umbrio.

Destun says it is unlikely anyone will be able to enter the building to retrieve any items, as it is just too dangerous.

CTV News reached out to the landlord, but have yet to receive a response.