An elderly woman and her daughter were able to escape without injury when the Bridgeport home they were in collapsed Thursday night.
The women ran out at about 10 p.m. as one wall of the home, on the 3600 block of South Lowe Avenue, came crashing down, causing half of the roof to shift into the gangway, said Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford.
Fire officials estimated the house was more than one hundred years old and the collapse may be due to the building’s age.
Houses on either side of the building also were evacuated as a precautionary measure, Langford said.
"If the roof slides any more off of the main building, it could cause some substantial damage to the building to the north," Langford said. "Every minute we get more bricks falling, it’s very unstable."
Firefighters remained on the scene Thursday night as utilities were shut off and officials from the city’s building department were en route to determine whether the house needed to be immediately torn down.
