AUBURN – A woman who swerved to avoid hitting stopped cars crashed into a downtown building, caving in part of its foundation.

Ashley MacDonald, 21, of 138 Fairview Ave., escaped injury when the 1993 Jeep Grand Cherokee she was driving down Court Street clipped a parked car and squeezed past a light pole then punched a hole in the brickwork of an apartment building.

The accident was reported shortly after 11 a.m. About four hours later, the vehicle was pulled from the sidewalk after a crane company shored up the building’s foundation, said police officer Donald Gosselin. City engineers inspected the damage, he said.

MacDonald was following a couple of cars down Court Street when she realized too late they had stopped in traffic, Gosselin said. She turned to avoid hitting those cars, he said. The car she hit, a 1996 Mercury, was parked by Richard Lachance, 59, of Grove Street, Lewiston.

Emergency crews evacuated apartment residents at 152 Court St. and cordoned off the area with yellow tape after smelling an odor believed to be natural gas. Later, utility workers determined there was no gas service at the building. Traffic was detoured around the scene.

A postal worker said he was near the light pole, just steps away from the crash site delivering mail to the apartment building when the SUV careened across the sidewalk.

The building is owned by Nova Properties, LLC of Scarborough, Gosselin said.

A first-floor resident said he was in his bedroom near the crash site when the SUV struck.

“It sounded like a refrigerator fell over upstairs,” said the man, who declined to give his name.