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

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

Fifteen people are out of their homes after the foundation of 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”.

“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.”