A 25-year-old man and three friends narrowly escaped being hit by a car involved in a collision that destroyed part of a vacant, historic building at 16th and U streets Tuesday afternoon.

Witnesses said a silver SUV, which was westbound on U Street, ran a stop sign and was hit by an Icee truck heading north on 16th Street. Northbound drivers have no traffic signal or sign at that intersection.

The building's front end was destroyed. Tuesday night, a city crew was working to stabilize the remaining walls of the unreinforced masonry building. Three-quarters of the building remain intact. The damaged parts of the roof and structure will be collapsed, said building inspector Josh Pino, overseeing the stabilization efforts.

“Right now, we’re securing the building to prevent anyone from going in and hurting themselves, and we’ll make sure nothing else is going to fall,” said Pino, who works in the Housing & Dangerous Building Division of the city’s Code Enforcement Department.

Residents and the owner of Harry’s Café, a restaurant next door, appeared stunned by the destruction that the truck wreaked on the front of a brick corner building built in 1929. People inside nearby buildings heard a loud explosion. For hours after the accident, they gathered on sidewalks in this section of Midtown to take a look at the damage and talk.

Both drivers were treated at local hospitals for minor injuries, said Sacramento Police Officer Tristan Piano. The building has been vacant since Mayor Kevin Johnson used it as his campaign headquarters.

Sam Luong, 25, was sitting with his buddies at a table outside his father’s restaurant, Harry’s Café, at 2026 16th St., when a crash in the intersection sent both vehicles up onto the sidewalk at about 2:20 p.m., said Sam’s father, Harry Luong.

The truck rammed into the outside corner of the building. The SUV swerved to the right, Piano said.

The young men jumped and ran from the oncoming vehicle, which crushed the table and chairs. They suffered minor cuts and bruises, Luong said. Another patron received minor injuries from flying glass shards, police said.

The devastation has shut down Luong’s popular Chinese restaurant for an unknown period.

“I’m worried for him," said Nelda Mackey, who lives at 17th and S streets. "I wonder if they’ll have to take down the whole building. That just makes me sad that he’s had this misfortune.”

Luong said his building won’t be affected because the two buildings are separate. However, his $3,000 neon sign and other property were damaged, and he’ll lose business until the city approves his reopening.

“I slept through the whole thing," said 39-year-old Fred Fong, who has lived behind the building on 15th Street since 1996. "My buddy called me and said, ‘Dude! Did you know a building collapsed in your neck of the woods?’ I said, ‘I hope it wasn’t the taco place.’”

The damaged building has been a big part of the neighborhood for 80 years. The structure was reportedly one of Sacramento’s first grocery stores – possibly one of the earliest Safeways, said Fong. Standing across the street checking out the damage, Fong said he once worked in the building when a family friend ran an antique store, Old Land Park Antiques, out of it.

Over the years, the building has seen many reincarnations. The structure housed a hardware store, cigar shop, printing shop, Chinese grocery and massage parlor.

Residents wondered whether the building would be torn down or restored. Unreinforced masonry buildings are “pretty stout” unless something hits them and compromises the supports, Pino said.

The building's owner is based in Reno, Nev. The structure sits in a neighborhood that has been deemed a preservation area by the city, so the city will have a say in whether the building is demolished or restored, he said.

A city worker later said there are plenty of pictures of the building that can be used if the city and the owner decide it will be restored.