this was close to my own home about 5blocks away?


SALEM, Ore. (AP) - Three members of a Salem family were hurt when their 103-year-old house tipped over and collapsed in a mangled heap while they were settling down to go to sleep.

Officials said the accident occurred after the house had been raised off its foundation for construction of a basement addition.

After the house violently shifted, firefighters rushed to the scene Thursday night and had to cut out one of the windows for an escape path so they could pull the trio out of their collapsed home.

Owner Doug Ebanks sprained his ankle while his son Keaton sustained a bump on the head. Ebanks' wife Eileen remained in the hospital with a back injury.

"I sat down and just turned on the TV and felt this movement and then a snap," Doug Ebanks said. "All of a sudden, everything was moving. Walls were coming in. The floor was moving."

Neighbors worried about the fate of Lucky, the family's dog. The dog, however, lived up to its name and was elsewhere when the building collapsed, Ebanks said.

City officials marked the house as a dangerous building, forbidding anyone to enter, and a chain link fence was put up around it.

A building permit had been issued for work on the house's foundation, and the type of work being done on the property is not uncommon, city officials said. Ebanks said he hired a reputable contractor, Emmert International, but he was concerned about how the work was proceeding.

"We were actually thinking about moving to the garage just because we had this weird feeling. It (the house) just seemed to have too much sway," Ebanks said

Emmert International, a 40-year-old company with headquarters in Clackamas, is known for moving buildings and hauling heavy equipment.

Company president Terry Emmert said the collapse wasn't the fault of the worker on the job.

"He didn't do anything wrong," Emmert said. "We believe the cause is from a water source that came in and saturated the ground."