St. Patrick's Day frat party turns to chaos as roof collapses, injuring 16 students: Watch
A rooftop collapse during a St. Patrick's Day party at the University of Pittsburgh injured at least 16 people.
A St. Patrick's Day frat party turned into chaos when a rooftop collapsed on a crowd of revellers, leaving at least 16 people injured. The incident occurred at a courtyard near the University of Pittsburgh, where up to 500 students had gathered to celebrate, only for the roof to give way beneath them, plunging several partygoers into a dangerous situation.
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Roof collapses at a frat party on St. Patrick's Day
According to the video which has since been going viral on social media, about two dozen people were clad on a shingled roof with even more people in bright green caps taking shade beneath it as the crowd grooved to the music during the celebration. In a fraction of a second, the back of the roof gave up and sank in as it got detached from the Semple Street building. The kids on the roof flew to the back before the front poles stabilising the captures also gave up, as reported by Daily Mail.
Other students immediately ran towards the collapsed roof to lift the structure and help people get out of it. Three people were hospitalised in serious condition, while 13 others sustained minor injuries, including concussions and arm wounds. Fortunately, all are expected to survive, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
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Students were warned not to sit on the roof
The university had issued a warning to students before the weekend, advising them to avoid standing on rooftops. Following the incident, the Department of Permits, Licenses, and Inspections confirmed that the rest of the building was structurally sound, according to CBS.
Michael Estocin, who was present on the roof, shared with CBS News, “It felt so scary. I really don't have the words to comprehend how I felt at the moment.” Meanwhile, Carlton Gbur who was standing under the roof when it collapsed, told the news outlet, “It just fell. Everyone was having fun and then no one was having fun.”
Another eyewitness of the incident who was neither on the roof nor under it but saw it collapse from a distance, Dave Rentzel told the outlet, “I was just scared for everybody that was down there. I was just sitting to the side and I saw it fall down.”
