A building that was being torn down collapsed with a thunderous boom Wednesday, raining bricks on a neighboring thrift store, killing a woman and injuring at least 13 other people in an accident that witnesses said was bound to happen.

The woman who died was 35 years old, the mayor said, but no other information about her was released.

Rescuers pulled another woman, trapped amid the rubble of a Salvation Army thrift store, after they heard her voice, city fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers said, and the search for survivors continued hours after the 10:45 a.m. collapse on the edge of downtown.

Rescuers were using buckets and bare hands to move the rubble to search for survivors.

"I was standing there looking out my window, watching the men at work on the building, and the next thing I know I heard something go kaboom," Veronica Haynes said.

Roofer Patrick Glynn said he had been watching workers take down the building over the past few weeks, and he said he suspected a collapse was inevitable because of the methods the workers were using to tear it down.

Carlton Williams of the city's Department of Licenses and Inspections said there were no existing violations on the building, and the demolition company had proper permits for the work.