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Debris From Brookline Building Hits Pavement Three Floors Below

BROOKLINE (CBS) -- The facade of an apartment building housing Boston University students fell to the ground Friday.

Crews are still continuing to work on removing the debris.

B.U. students Sky DiGirolamo and Danielle Danowski live on the third floor of the building on Egmont Street in Brookline. They were getting ready for class when the facade cracked and fell to the ground.

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Sky DiGirolamo and Danielle Danowski. (WBZ-TV)

"I heard like a big crack and I just turned left and it all came crashing down," Danowski said.

DiGirolamo said she was also getting ready for class.

"It felt like an earthquake from above," DiGirolamo said.

Danowski said the whole building shook.

"I heard this huge rumble and it felt like the whole apartment was shaking," Danowski said. "I looked to my left out my window and we saw huge slabs of concrete falling down."

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Debris from the Brookline building. (WBZ-TV)

Brookline Police and Fire arrived a few minutes after the noon collapse and told the students living in two adjacent buildings that they had to evacuate.

B.U.'s Director of Student Services Peter Fiedler says they're working to help those students.

"There are BU students who live there and we're working to find out who they are and where they are and get them relocated as soon as possible," Fiedler said.

Danowski says the university representatives have been very helpful.

"He was really nice and he said in the worst case scenario we could stay in a dorm. And he had food and water for us if we needed anything," Danowski said.

The tenants are displaced and are only allowed to go in the building long enough to bring out their belongings.

About 35 students have had to leave the building according to building manager Tony Tam of Kai Fai LLC.

Tam also says Main Street Realty is in charge of condo association which is in responsible for making the building repairs. He says his company has been in charge of cleaning up the debris and he hopes to have the students able to return to their apartments within a couple of days.
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