Massive college party in Texas causes floor of apartment to collapse

DENTON, Tex. (KDFW) - A jam packed apartment party in Texas ended abruptly Sunday morning, when the floor went crashing into the apartment below.

The incident was caught on video from multiple angles from the apartment near the University of North Texas in Denton, near Dallas. People at the party, many of them UNT students, had to crawl from the empty second floor apartment, back to the third. Somehow, injuries were minor.

Videos show water spewing from broken pipes as people climb over beams and plywood to escape.

FOX 4 in Dallas has video of the collapse as it happened.

It could've been life or death for Carley Carroll, who lives in that second floor apartment below the party. Carroll and her three roommates, all sophomores at the University of North Texas, were not home at the time. They were at the Denton Police Department, making a noise complaint just before 2 a.m.

“I have nowhere to go. Everything I own is in there,” said Carroll. “That's life threatening. If we were in our living room, we wouldn't have made it out because by what we've seen, it's just completely gone."

Carroll and her roommates are not the only ones affected. Fifty other residents are also displaced.

“People gotta grab their wallets, keys, back packs because we have school tomorrow," said Trent Blackburn.

Police estimate there were 100 people at the party. Carroll says that's typical; she's called the cops on the party-goers before.

"We've called and said, 'It looks like the ceiling is going to cave in,' so I feel like with us saying that, there could've been more that was done," said Carroll.

Denton Police are working to confirm the previous noise complaints. Police say those type of calls are low priority in nature and people have usually left the party by the time officers arrive.

This incident was upgraded to a possible mass casualty incident. There is now an investigation into the structural failing. Students affected by this say both the apartment management and the university have helped secure places for them to stay, mostly in hotels or dorms and food.

Carroll says fake fundraising pages have been set up by people pretending to be her and her roommates, hoping to take advantage of their situation. They are asking people not to donate to those fundraisers.