Most of the pictures are a little misleading for distance etc, as well as time. When people are close to the building is before the fire department arrived, and people are trying to get other people out of the building. It sounds like they're relatively situationally aware, warning eachother about live cables, gas, etc. Obviously there's a risk of death but there's also a risk of your old neighbor getting squashed if you don't get her out, so, I guess it's up to each person how they react.

Within about 20 minutes the fire department had completed its first evaluation of damage and identified the 3 partially collapsed buildings.