Burst pipe leads to a Collinwood apartment building collapse

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) - A family is left with nothing after a pipe burst at their Collinwood apartment complex and led to the building collapsing.

The pipe burst on Christmas Eve and a week later the fire department was called to the building on Coit Road for the collapse.

Crews were there on Thursday clearing away the rubble of the clothes and belongings of the people who lived there and couldn’t get there in time to collect their things.

“I’ve heard of slumlords but you never think that things like this to happen,” tenant Ryean Jones said. “You lose everything you have, your home, your items, everything.”

Jones and her two children were left without running water and heat in the sub-zero temperatures. She immediately called her landlord hoping the problems could be fixed.

“When you don’t have any running water, you can’t make bottles, nothing, so we left and got a hotel,” Jones said. “They were telling us they were going to have someone come fix it the day after Christmas, no one ever came.”

Days later, things turned for the worst when the building collapsed.

“The building was collapsing, it started falling from the bottom,” Jones said. “The roof collapsed then the building fell. All the bricks. You could see refrigerators falling out, stoves, walls hanging.”

Her family left with nowhere to go, she called the 19 Troubleshooters for help.

19 News called her landlord asking if he offered tenants a new place to go. The landlord said he did not want to comment.

As for Jones, she and her family are left picking up the pieces from this devastating situation.

“It’s unbelievable,” Jones said. “Today is a better day because the past couple of days have been rough.”

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