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Pittsburgh Woman Injured After Apartment Ceiling Collapses

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- A North Side woman's living room is now covered in dust and chunks of plaster.

The woman invited KDKA's Meghan Schiller into her apartment because she said her ceiling collapsed after complaining about issues for more than a year.

Francine Williams said hot sausage on the stove saved her life.

"If God wouldn't have made me raise my head up, that's what would have hit me in my damn head," Williams said.

ceILING COLLAPSE
(Photo Credit: KDKA)

She walked KDKA's cameras around her Brighton Road apartment, pointing to another crack in the bedroom.

"This is how it started in the living room," Williams said.

She told KDKA the living room ceiling collapsed Thursday night, leaving her with nothing but chunks of plaster, dust and her frustration.

"I've been telling y'all for over a year about this living room ceiling," Williams said. "I can literally see through the crack now. Y'all keep telling me this is not a major maintenance problem. So what, do I have to wait for it to fall on me? And that's just what happened."

KDKA found out Birgo Realty owns the apartment building. Willams, known by friends and family as Miss Franny, claims her calls to them about the ceiling crack didn't result in a fix.

"Why should this happen to me in the first place if y'all would of just came and fixed it?" she said.

Williams has filed a complaint with the Pittsburgh Housing Authority. The authority told KDKA that they're now going out to inspect the building and apartment and will give Birgo Realty 30 days to fix the issue.

If it's not fixed, the Pittsburgh Housing Authority said it can pull the subsidy for the unit.

Birgo Realty moved Williams to another property on the North Side while working on a fix.

A Birgo Realty spokesperson sent KDKA the following statement:

"Our hearts go out to the resident in this very unfortunate circumstance. We are taking action to understand what happened and to make things right."

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