Retaining wall collapses on vehicles at Brighton apartment complex amid heavy rain

A retaining wall collapsed on several vehicles in a parking lot at an apartment complex in Boston’s Brighton neighborhood Monday night, after a storm system moving through the region brought several inches of rain to the city.

The fire department responded and found several cars buried in mud after the wall collapsed behind the Tremont Street apartments.

People said they heard it come down but didn’t know what it was at first. They say the retaining wall was just built and completed in May. Beyond it, residents say there is some construction going on currently.

A lot of people said they were just shocked and that this will be a bit of a mess with insurance.

“There were a couple of cars parked in that corner area and so one of them was my vehicle so from what I can see before the firefighters shooed everybody away was that it looked like my car was just pushed in the mud and there might be some front end damage. And one of the cars looks like it’s just submerged in mud,” Carla Leite said.

“It’s worrying that in such a minor rain storm the retaining wall would give out. That’s holding back a huge hill. That’s really scary,” Wes Ratliff said.

There’s no word if this was caused directly by all of the rain we’re getting, or if perhaps there was some form of structural deficiency. Residents are speculating for now, given how saturated the ground is, but it will take time for officials to determine what exactly happened.

There was no word on any injuries.

NBC10 Boston has reached out to the fire department for more information but has not heard back yet.