A building collapse in D.C. killed construction worker Edgar Cinfuentes. His wife found out at the scene.

They planned to spend Christmas Eve together at the church where they got married seven years ago.

But now Melva Bonilla was standing on a street corner in Northwest Washington, where Edgar Cinfuentes, her 36-year-old husband, was trapped under the rubble of a nearby building.

"Ma'am," D.C. Fire Chief John Donnelly said. "I need to talk to you in private."

They walked across the street, away from the parked ambulances. Bonilla shook her head. Then silently, she started to cry.

Cinfuentes, a 36-year-old construction worker from Guatemala, was inside the rowhouse in the 1100 block of V Street NW Monday morning to work on what officials have described as a "major renovation" project. Around 9:30 a.m., parts of building collapsed, disintegrating into piles of brick and cement.

Underneath was Cinfuentes, and his family said officials told them he was dead. D.C. police have not publicly identified the victim.

"It's devastating," said Cinthya Alvarez, 37, a family member of Bonilla, calling for the city to explain how they could have let construction continue in a building that turned out to be so dangerous.

The D.C. Department of Buildings last year approved raze permits, which allow for demolition of the structures, for the rowhouse and its neighboring building, public records show. The building's neighboring structure was demolished, but the rowhouse that collapsed Monday was not, according to a Department of Buildings spokesperson.

The two buildings had been consolidated into one lot, the spokesperson said, which in June received a permit for a new building. A permit describes the planned structure as a five-floor building with six apartments.

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Brian Hanlon, director of the D.C. Department of Buildings, said the rowhouse had valid permits and that the construction that started about a month ago consisted of "preparation for a structural footing."

Hanlon said the building had been inspected in December, and that the report would be part of the agency's investigation into the fatal incident.

The Department of Buildings spokesperson, in a statement, said the building "was not razed under the previously issued and since expired raze permit" and that the agency "continues to investigate the construction activities that occurred today before the wall collapse."

Ritesh Matta, who October 2024 property records describe as the "sole member" of the Delaware-based 1111 V Street LLC, which owns both properties, did not return an email and phone call requesting comment.

Bonilla got the call about an accident when she was still in the home she shared with Cinfuentes, Alvarez said, which is less than two miles from the last place he would ever go.

Alvarez said Cinfuentes has a teenage daughter who lives in Miami. She described him as a devoted husband who spent much of his free time with Bonilla in church, where they first met.

The family waited near the collapsed building into the evening Monday.

They wanted his body, which was still trapped under the rubble. They needed to see it for themselves to believe Cinfuentes was gone.

Michael Brice-Saddler contributed to this report.