A back deck collapsed at an off-campus home in Williamsburg, Virginia, during a college homecoming party on Friday night, injuring at least 28 people. William & Mary confirmed that students were among those hurt, and all reported injuries were non-life-threatening, according to city officials.
Dispatchers received a report of a structure collapse around 10:07 p.m. on the 200 block of Matoaka Court. Responding police and firefighters found that the home's back deck had given way, the city said. Emergency crews transported 13 people to hospitals, while another 15 reportedly sought treatment on their own, according to the city's update on Saturday morning. City officials said they were working with area hospitals to confirm the total number of people treated.
Neighbors described a scene that quickly filled the street with emergency vehicles. One resident, who asked not to be named, told WAVY that ambulances and fire trucks stretched down the block and wrapped around the neighborhood, and that hospital gurneys were being moved out of ambulances. The neighbor estimated that at least nine ambulances had gathered on the street.
Joshua Wise, who lives next to the home, told WAVY that some of his classmates were involved. He returned after emergency crews had finished responding and learned that his housemate had been helping people get home. "Word was traveling pretty fast," Wise said. "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." He said neighbors had come together after the incident. "We did everything we could to help each other out and I think that that's beautiful," he said. He also praised the responders. "Thank goodness for the emergency responders," he said. "They were great. The ambulances and everything got here pretty fast."
In a Saturday message to the campus community, Ginger Ambler, William & Mary's senior vice president for student affairs and public safety, said the university was still gathering information and that additional students may have sought care beyond those initially counted. "We are grateful that none of the injuries were life-threatening," Ambler wrote. She said staff across the university's health, academic and student support offices were working to assist affected students. "We recognize that such an experience may affect our students deeply and in different ways," she wrote.
The city's Codes Compliance Division is evaluating and inspecting the site. No cause of the collapse was reported in the sources available at the time of publication.