U STREET: Townhouse Collapses

The Washington Post reports this morning that a townhouse near the booming U Street corridor partially collapsed yesterday.

From The Washington Post:Firefighters noticed a large crack on the three-story townhouse about noon when they responded to a report of a gas leak at a neighboring construction site in the 2100 block of 11th Street NW, said Alan Etter of the D.C. Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services. While firefighters were looking at the damage caused by the crack, it grew worse, so authorities evacuated the building, Etter said.

The crack may have been caused by work at the construction site, where firefighters found a small leak of natural gas trapped in old pipes. No one was injured.