A Santa Monica home collapsed Friday after the earth underneath it gave way as a result of the rain.
At about 8:15 p.m., the duplex, on Fourth Street between Pico Boulevard and Bay Street, sank about four feet into the ground, causing the structure to buckle.
No injuries were reported, however authorities said people were inside the home when it collapsed.
Jutta Gonzalez, who had lived in the south side of the building for decades, was working at her job in the service department at Sears when she found out her home collapsed. Gonzalez’ friend, Richard Ramos, was passing by the home on the bus when he saw the street blocked off with emergency vehicles at the house Friday night. He called Gonzalez at work to inform her that her house had crumbled.
Gonzalez spent Friday night at a local hotel courtesy of the American Red Cross.
“The inconvenience and enormity of this is going to take days, weeks, but I’m not dead and the family isn’t dead,” she said, surveying the damage outside of her home on Sunday with family and friends.
“Something good is going to come of it,” she added, joking about someone offering her a plush condominium.
The longtime resident, a collector of many things, took advantage of Sunday’s dry weather to begin hauling her belongings out of the home that has been deemed unsafe by the city’s building and safety department.
Doors were ripped off the wall, windows had exploded from pressure and the entire mid-section of the building caved in. The Santa Monica Fire Department and city officials had to temporarily shut off the gas line in the area because the building’s collapse caused a gas leak.
Gonzalez won’t be returning since the building most likely will be razed. Her extensive gardens in the front and backyard will have to be transplanted elsewhere.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 11, 2002. Read the original PDF.