A demolition worker was flown to a Pittsburgh hospital from Beaver Falls after a building he was working on collapsed shortly before 1 p.m. Sunday.

Beaver Falls fire Chief Mark Stowe said he was told the man, an employee of Unis Demolition of Aliquippa, had been working on an upper floor of the building in the 800 block of Seventh Ave. when the collapse occurred. The man was trapped for a short time in the rubble but was conscious when he was removed.

“He seemed to be in pretty good shape when we got him out,” Stowe said.

“He was flown to Pittsburgh after we checked with the emergency department at the Medical Center. They wanted to have him checked for internal injuries because he had been buried under a fair amount of material.”

Demolition on the building, a two-story double storefront, started on Saturday, said Inez Hamett, who lives next door at 806 Seventh Ave.

“The guy fell through down from the second floor and just got buried under all those bricks,” Hamett said. “He was talking when they got him out, though. It didn’t look like he was hurt too bad.”

Stowe said he didn’t know how the collapse occurred. He refused to release the victim’s name but said the injured man was taken to UPMC Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh.

The man’s condition was not known Sunday night.

Stowe said the building, which he believed to be owned by the defunct Beaver Initiative for Growth, had been vacant for “as long as I can remember” and condemned for years.

“It was in pretty bad shape even before the collapse,” Stowe said. “The roof had already started to cave in a couple of spots.”