Part of this home at 5 S. Line Road, Stevens, collapsed Monday morning while renovation work was underway in the basement. No one was injured.
Phil Wiest, owner of the home at 5 S. Line Road, Stevens, talks on a phone Monday outside the remains of his house.
Parts of an East Cocalico Township home collapsed Monday morning while renovations were under way in its basement.
Phil Wiest got out of his home at 5 S. Line Road before the front wall and porch collapsed around 10 a.m., according to Stevens Fire Company Chief Chad Weaver.
"No one was inside when it came down, and no one was injured," Weaver said.
Wiest, his wife and their two young children were forced to seek shelter with relatives Monday night after township officials deemed the house unfit for living, Weaver said.
As many as 60 firefighters, including members of Millersville Fire Company's collapse and rescue team, worked all day and late into Monday night to secure the house with support timbers.
Weaver said that work included tearing down what was left of the front wall of the 1930s-era home.
"The township zoning officer and building inspector were out here today to verify what needed to come down to make the house secure," Weaver said.
Weaver said he didn't know what specific work Wiest was doing before the wall collapsed.
"We'll find that out (Tuesday) when we get inside the house to see what's going on," he said.
Neighbors said Wiest apparently was working in the basement when he heard a strange noise that caused him to leave the house.
The front wall of the home sank, causing the wood and metal porch and some bricks on the second floor to fall down.
Remaining sections of the brick front sagged and had large cracks running through them, extending all the way to the home's interior.
Within three hours, a crane with a claw was brought in to pull down the unsound sections of the exterior wall.
That demolition work exposed portions of the home's second floor, which separated from interior walls and sagged nearly to the ground.
A child's crib in one of the exposed second-floor rooms could be seen from the outside.
Firefighters reached into the rooms with poles to pull down furniture, stuffed animals and other items.
An attempt to reach Wiest on Monday night was unsuccessful.
Weaver said crews were busy late Monday night fastening sturdy wooden beams to the exterior of the house and then securing them to the ground to prevent any more of the structure from falling.
Sections of South Line Road and Stevens Road, which border two sides of the house, were closed from the time of the collapse until late Monday night while crews were on the scene.
According to county tax records, Wiest and his wife, Melanie, bought the three-bedroom house in 2003.