Make New York Post a Preferred Source A 122-year-old Illinois building partially collapsed Wednesday, injuring at least three people – hours after an entire building in Brooklyn disintegrated, killing eight.
The facade of the structure in Aurora, Ill., crumbled down onto the street as pedestrians and cars raced out of the way of the debris cloud, according to video obtained by Fox 32 Chicago.
The building, located on the 100 block of East Galena Boulevard, suffered a partial collapse at around 6:37 p.m. as part of the exterior wall fell, taking with it the scaffolding structure, city officials said.
Three people sustained minor injuries during the collapse and are expected to “make a full recovery,” officials said, without providing additional information on their location at the time of the destruction.
Dozens of cars had been traveling along the adjacent Broadway street that houses several restaurants and stores in the popular downtown section of the city.
A car had pulled out of a street parking spot and begun driving away as a portion of the building fell into its path along the street, forcing the driver to swerve out of harm’s way.
A cloud of smoke enveloped the street as the part of the city came to a standstill.
The building was evacuated as a precaution and crews performed a controlled collapse using “targeted water operations” to remove “structurally unsound” portions of the building.
City officials closed down the streets outside the building until it was deemed structurally sound and the scaffolding was repaired.
A cause of the collapse was not known but investigators pointed to the surveillance video that captured the roof of the building falling, taking the exterior wall and scaffolding with it.
A large chunk of the upper floor and roof was missing in aftermath photos provided by the city that showed the complete destruction left behind by the collapse.
Initial evidence from the scene did not link Wednesday’s collapse to a similar incident at the same address in 2025, where a part of the building’s brick facade fell onto the nearby train tracks.
The historic building – built in 1904 – was mostly empty, consisting of vacant apartments with only one store, a barber shop, currently operating on the first floor, according to property records viewed by The Post.
Wednesday’s collapse came three and a half hours after a three-story apartment building fell in Flatbush, Brooklyn.
The collapse, which occurred at around 4 p.m. Eastern on 1321 Flatbush Avenue, killed eight people – including two children – and sent 18 others to the hospital.
The doomed New York building had separated from the rest of the structure, falling into an excavated construction pit.
Dozens of residents were displaced as city officials vacated three neighboring buildings until engineers determined if they were structurally sound to house people again.
A stop-work order had been issued by the Department of Buildings in March after inspectors discovered violations at the construction site next door, including inadequate overhead protection such as netting and sheds to shield neighboring buildings.
