Virginia family’s dining room ceiling collapse caught on video

A Virginia family captured the moment their dining room ceiling collapsed in front of them, filling their home with dust and debris.

The incident happened Friday at the home of Micah Porter in Springfield, just outside of Washington, D.C. 

“What are we thinking?” a woman is heard saying as the ceiling starts giving way. 

“Oh, oh, oh, oh my!” family members shouted as a ceiling panel crashed to the ground. 

Electrical wires from a recessed lighting fixture can be seen swaying around before a second panel tumbles to the floor. 

“Did you get it on video?” the woman said.

“Yeah, duh,” a teenager responded. 

Porter told Storyful that his son noticed a crack in the ceiling that morning, which had grown by the afternoon. 

“My son set his phone in case the ceiling fell, and it did,” he said. 

Elsewhere in the U.S., over the weekend, 16 Californians were forced to evacuate after a landslide in Rolling Hills Estates impacted their homes Saturday. 


A Virginia family's ceiling collapsed on Friday, and they were able to get it on video.
A Virginia family’s ceiling collapsed on Friday, and they were able to get it on video.
Micah J Porter via Storyful

Their dining room was filled with dust and debris and electrical wires were swaying around.
Their dining room was filled with dust and debris and electrical wires were swaying around.
Micah J Porter via Storyful

Los Angeles County Fire Department officials noticed something was awry when they responded to Peartree Lane at around 4 p.m. regarding a water leak.

Crew members began to notice structural damage and cracks inside and outside the home. 

“From that point, we started noticing the significant cracks, started going door to door, and all the residents were very obliging and moved out really quick,” Los Angeles County Fire Department assistant chief Brian Bennett explained during a press conference. 

Officials quickly ordered 12 homes to evacuate before the fissure made them all uninhabitable. Residents were told that they had 20 minutes to gather their belongings and leave. 


In California, 16 people were forced to evacuate their home after a landslide.
In California, 16 people were forced to evacuate their home after a landslide.
Micah J Porter via Storyful

In June, at least eight construction workers in Connecticut were injured after a building partially collapsed just a few blocks from Yale University and its medical school.  

The building in New Haven was under construction at the time of the collapse.

Workers told first responders that too much concrete pooled in one area after it was poured faster than they could spread it, causing the collapse, Fire Chief John Alston Jr. said during a news conference. 

In late May, a Davenport, Iowa, apartment building partially collapsed.  

Remains of three people were later pulled from the rubble. 

Additionally, in Texas that month, two people were killed and several others injured after a house under construction collapsed in a Houston suburb following severe storms that passed through the area.