Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Magic, an American pit bull terrier buried Monday under a collapsed three-story wall of bricks in Philadelphia, was found alive in the rubble Wednesday, leaving his owner in tears.
Construction work on a building in Philadelphia's Kensington neighborhood went wrong when the brick wall toppled Monday morning, crashing onto a car owned by next-door neighbor Jose Gonzalez and his 16-year-old dog Magic, according to NBC News. Gonzalez desperately searched for the dog in the deep rubble to no avail.
"And everybody pronounced him dead," Gonzalez told WPVI-TV.
Pedro Palmer, who owns the construction company hired to clean up the mess, was going through the rubble on Wednesday when he noticed something moving under the bricks.
"I said, 'that's impossible, that can't be the dog,'" Palmer told NBC, adding that two other workers started digging by hand and freed Magic in about 15 minutes. "I think it's a miracle. I believe in God more than I believed before."
Gonzalez told WCAU-TV that he was overcome by the news.
"They say men don't cry but I was so happy I was crying," Gonzalez said to the television station. "We are all happy about that, that nobody was hurt. That's was the main thing. But when I found out my dog was here, it was the same thing as somebody getting hurt."
A veterinarian treated Magic for trauma and dehydration after he was rescued, NBC reported.
Though Magic survived, Philadelphia's Department of Licenses and Inspections told WPVI-TV the owner of the rowhome where the wall collapsed was not adhering to construction code and used an unlicensed and uninsured contractor for the job.
A city inspector was expected to examine the building after the incident, WPVI-TV stated.
