A sunny, festive day during St. Patrick's Day weekend filled with people dancing, drinking and taking pictures was brought to an end when a porch roof fell onto partiers, causing chaos and a swift emergency service presence.

The roof of a porch on Semple Street collapsed during a St. Patrick's Day party on Friday, March 14, sending 16 people to the hospital and injuring at least a dozen more. At least 20 people were standing on the roof when it appeared to disconnect from the house, falling onto more partygoers below.

The incident came as a shock to witnesses like Demi Bauer, who said she was on the porch when the roof collapsed. When the porch fell above her, Bauer said she was pushed over and had to jump onto the ground, losing both her glasses and phone in the process.

"It felt like slow motion," Bauer, a senior media and professional communications major, said. "I jumped off [the porch] and was like, 'What the hell?' I went back to find [my two friends]. They might have suffered concussions. It was just, like, disbelief."

Bauer said she saw people leaving the scene with blood on their faces, as well as another person collapsing onto the ground after taking a few steps.

Others like Tara Durkin and Emma Poknis narrowly avoided the falling porch. Poknis, a sophomore social work major, said she and Durkin were standing against the porch's railings, moving away moments before it fell to avoid being hit.

"I was thinking about how lucky we were," Poknis said. "Nobody had time to move because it happened so fast. We just got so lucky it didn't fall on us."

Durkin, a sophomore computer science major, said after witnessing the roof fall, she couldn't believe what she saw.

"I thought I hallucinated it," Durkin said. "A bunch of sawdust got in our eyes, and then we were just scrambling to get out of the way."

Will Cashin, a sophomore material science major, said he was inside the house when the porch roof crashed. When he heard the commotion outside, Cashin said he thought his drunk friends might have fallen off the roof. It wasn't until he looked outside the window that he saw the destruction and "immediate pandemonium" from the crowd below.

"People were screaming," Cashin said. "Inside, people were running around covered in dirt. There was a girl on the couch who seemed to be in serious pain. They were trying to cut her cowboy boot off with scissors."

Nolan Mikesell, a sophomore public health major, was talking to his friend on the phone who got lost in the crowd right before the incident. He was standing across the courtyard with his back turned to the house, trying to hear his call.

"I just turned back around and the porch was completely gone," Mikesell said. "Everyone just started rushing to pick up [the roof]. In the moment, it was really hard to comprehend what really happened."

Once the surprise wore off, Bauer said many partygoers quickly jumped into action, helping people trapped beneath the roof escape.

"You could see people coming together during a [crisis]," Bauer said. "Some people did run away, because it's fight or flight, but you had a lot of people just lifting the roof off, trying to get people out from underneath it."

Michael Estocin, a senior film and communications major, also spoke about the care of the crowd after the calamity, saying those who weren't injured quickly aided others who were.

"I went outside, and I saw this one girl, and she came up to me and was like, 'If you need anything, I live down the street, and you are welcome,'" Estocin said. "Everyone was just super caring and just making sure that no one got hurt."

Other members of the crowd focused on calling emergency services, trying to get medics to the disaster as quickly as possible. Mikesell said that after they were called, the paramedics reached the scene within a few minutes.

"I was in front of one of the houses sitting on their front steps, and a fire truck and double ambulances pulled up," Mikesell said. "There were some cop cars down the road, and they jumped out of the truck, got some gear and just ran into the lot."

Once the paramedics arrived, Cashin said everyone who was partying left the scene.

"It was kind of mayhem afterwards," Cashin said. "Once everyone cleared out, it all kinda just settled in. Everyone was like, 'Holy shit, did that just happen?'"