A college homecoming celebration ended in chaos Friday night after a back deck collapsed at a Williamsburg, Virginia, home, injuring at least 28 people and prompting a major emergency response.
William & Mary said students were among those hurt at the off-campus house. City officials reported that none of the injuries appeared to be life-threatening.
Authorities received a call about a structure collapse at approximately 10:07 p.m. in the 200 block of Matoaka Court. Police officers and firefighters arriving at the scene determined that the home’s rear deck had given way, according to the city.
Thirteen people were transported to hospitals by emergency crews, while 15 others reportedly made their own arrangements to seek medical care, the city said in an update Saturday morning.
Neighbors told WAVY that a homecoming party was taking place when the deck collapsed. One resident recalled seeing emergency vehicles fill the surrounding streets.
“All the way down the street and wrapped around just ambulances and fire trucks,” the neighbor, who requested anonymity, told WAVY. “We saw a lot of hospital gurneys coming out of ambulances. At least nine ambulances kind of wrapped around the street.”
Joshua Wise, who lives next door, told the station that some of his classmates were involved. When he returned after the emergency response had ended, he learned that his housemate had been helping those affected get home.
“Word was traveling pretty fast,” Wise told WAVY.
“By the time I got back here, the emergency response was over, but I had a housemate who was helping people, trying to help out as much as possible, drive people home, get people where they needed to be.”
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Wise said the incident also brought neighbors together as they worked to support one another.
“We did everything we could to help each other out and I think that that’s beautiful,” he said.
In a message sent to the campus community Saturday, Ginger Ambler, William & Mary’s senior vice president for student affairs and public safety, said the university was continuing to determine the full impact of the collapse. She added that additional students may have received medical attention beyond those included in the initial count.
“We are grateful that none of the injuries were life-threatening,” Ambler wrote.
Ambler said teams from the university’s health, academic and student-support departments were working to help the students affected by the incident.
“We recognize that such an experience may affect our students deeply and in different ways,” Ambler wrote.
Wise also commended the speed and professionalism of the first responders.
“Thank goodness for the emergency responders,” he told WAVY. “They were great. The ambulances and everything got here pretty fast.”
Local police and fire crews responded to the scene, while city officials coordinated with nearby hospitals to verify how many people ultimately received treatment.
The city’s Codes Compliance Division is now reviewing the property and conducting an inspection of the collapsed deck and site.
