By Patrick Wall and Tom Liddy
DNAinfo Reporters
HARLEM — Facades from three storefronts on Seventh Avenue partially collapsed Saturday, sending bricks and other debris raining onto the sidewalk, officials and witnesses said.
But miraculously, no one was hurt in the chain reaction 5:30 p.m. incident, near 126th Street.
"It's so amazing," said Salah Alsaidi, the owner of 2131 Deli Grocery, one of the affected stores. "A lot of people hang out [on the sidewalk] every day but today, no one was there."
His brother, Fehd Alsaidi, said that he was at the back of the shop when the bricks, awnings, and even a satellite dish came down.
"I was filling up a soda and I hear a sound like it was raining outside," he said.
All of a sudden, a customer rushed to the back of the store and said 'Yo, the building's going down,' he recalled.
Witnesses said that the collapse started at restaurant, Cazuela, spread to the deli and then ended at a clothing store, A.B. Confidence.
A worker at the clothing store, Amadou Diallo, was outside when the collapse happened.
"I Just hear boom and it just follows like boom, boom, boom," he said. "I was shocked."
The incident left the sidewalk littered with debris.
Fehd Alsaidi said that it could be a couple of weeks before the store reopens and that there could be damage to the roof.
It was not immediately clear if the structural stability of the buildings was affected.
