PITTSBURGH — On Friday morning, first responders were called to 1900 Rhine Street in the city’s Spring Hill neighborhood; a woman was having a medical emergency and needed help quickly, but when crews arrived, they found a boarded-up home so unstable that responders could get in but couldn’t safely get the woman out.
Crews used a rope and pulley system, evacuating the woman through a third-floor window. She was then rushed to a local hospital where she is now in a life-threatening condition.
Channel 11 News was there and captured the dramatic rescue on video. Friday night, we learned how two people had been able to live in the home years after it had been condemned.
“It’s unlivable. Literally, the back of the house is gone, no one probably should have been living here at all,” said Cara Cruz, a spokesperson for the Pittsburgh Police Bureau.
No one should have been living there, according to city records, the owner had violations dating back to 2016, when it was initially condemned.
It is now among the roughly 1800 condemned city properties that have yet to be torn down.
“I definitely don’t think people should be living there. If you go down the steps and you look at the side of the house, it looks like it’s falling apart, the foundation looks horrible,” said a neighbor.
Neighbors didn’t want to show their faces but told Channel 11 the house is among several on the block that are an eyesore and a danger to nearby residents.
11 investigates started looking into this problem months ago after two condemned buildings on Fifth Avenue came crashing down last summer. Channel 11 asked the city at the end of 2024 if they were on track to tear down their goal of between 100 and 120 houses.
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In mid-December, city data showed it had only torn down around two dozen of just 25 percent of its goal. Just last week, another condemned property in the city’s Knoxville area again came crumbling down.
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“The windows, all of them are boarded up and in the summer, there is an odor down the city steps,” a neighbor said.
Cruz confirmed that officials would reinspect the property following the incident, “Permits, license, and inspection will be coming to assess the home, I imagine it will be condemned and taken down.”
The city told us they had last inspected the property in October 2024, but following today’s rescue they have elevated the status of the property to a “prohibited occupancy status.”
The city also said that it appears the owner of the property is dead, but confirmed that to determine the property’s status, the full legal process must be followed, including investigation, notification, court proceedings, and a final court decision.
It is unlikely that charges will be filed against the two people living in the home.
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