BALTIMORE — Neighbors tell me a man pulled from a collapsed home in East Baltimore yesterday was looking for shelter from the rain, when it ultimately cost him his safety.
"I heard the commotion outside ambulance, fire trucks, EMS. You know," said Kevin Baker, community member.
Around this time of year, scenes similar to what Baker describes seeing on North Dallas Street Tuesday night aren't hard to come by.
Especially near the more than dozen vacant homes lining the block close to where he lives.
He says around 9:00 last night, first responders spent quite a bit of time trying to get someone from inside the shell of a house.
"They were out in the back alley and from my understanding somebody had fell through the floor in one of those abandoned houses around there," said Baker.
A Firefighter Union representative took to twitter sharing the news Baker calls a first.
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"That’s sort of like a first for somebody falling through a floor or something like that. From my understanding the guy was trying to get out of the rain. It was raining hard. He was just trying to dip into a place to get some shelter I guess," said Baker.
"I knew that was going to happen eventually because people venture into these houses to get the copper, the steel, whatever the furnaces and whatever inner organs of the house then can and they get stuck," said Palestine Boone, resident in the area.
Boone, who's lived off Dallas for more than 60 years, says while the houses can keep a person out of the rain, the conditions inside just aren't livable.
"They can’t squat in most of these houses that are vacant in this block cause none of them have a floor. You can hardly get in the front door," said Boone.
Baker, since the incident, hoping it serves as a good reminder for folks wandering inside to be more careful.
"You don't know what's going to happen to you. Buildings are old. They're run down. So, I just tell people to be careful. I feel for this situation. I was homeless at one time, so I understand," said Baker.
