PHILADELPHIA — For weeks, people working nearby had watched
with growing concern as a demolition crew took down a vacant four-story building
next to a thrift store at the edge of downtown Philadelphia.
A roofer atop another building didn't think the operation
looked safe. A pair of window washers across the street spotted an unbraced,
30-foot section of wall and predicted among themselves the whole building would
simply fall down.
On Wednesday, that's what happened. The unstable shell of a
building collapsed into a massive heap of bricks and splintered wood, taking
part of the Salvation Army thrift store with it and killing six people. Fourteen
others were injured.
"Our thoughts and our prayers go out to those who lost
their lives, and their families," said Mayor Michael Nutter at a
late-night news conference at which he announced the death toll. "At the
same time, we pray that those who survive will recover not only physically, but
certainly mentally from the trauma of being in a building and it suddenly
collapses."
Rescuers used buckets and their bare hands to move bricks
and rubble in a search-and-rescue operation that was expected to last into
Thursday morning.
Searchers said they would continue going through the rubble.
We're going to keep searching "until we're absolutely
sure no one else is there," battalion fire chief Charles Lupre said
shortly before dawn Thursday.
He said there were no reports of anyone missing, but there
was always the chance that someone was inside who wasn't reported missing.
Witnesses said they heard a loud rumbling sound immediately
before the collapse.
"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," said Veronica Haynes, who was on the fifth floor of an apartment
building across the street. "Then you saw the whole side of the wall fall
down ... onto the other building."
It was unclear what role the demolition work might have
played in the collapse, but the accident raised questions about how closely the
highly visible spot on Market Street, one of Philadelphia's signature
boulevards, was being monitored, particularly amid word of the demolition
contractor's many legal and financial troubles. Officials from the U.S.
Department of Labor and Occupational Safety and Health Administration were at
the scene.
Several witnesses said they had questioned how the
demolition workers were tackling the job.
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 way they were going about it.
"For weeks they've been standing on the edge, knocking
bricks off," he said. "You could just see it was ready to go at any
time. I knew it was going to happen."
Steve Cramer, who has been working as a window washer across
the street, said the demolition crew left 30 feet of a dividing wall up with no
braces and it compromised the integrity of the building
"We've been calling it for the past week — it's going
to fall, it's going to fall," his co-worker Dan Gillis said.
Officials said the demolition contractor was Griffin
Campbell Construction in Philadelphia. Messages left for Campbell were not
returned.
Records show that Campbell was charged in 2005 with dealing
crack cocaine near a playground. The charges were dismissed after prosecutors
misplaced evidence.
He pleaded guilty in an insurance fraud case in 2009, and
was acquitted of aggravated assault and related offenses in 2007.
Campbell has also filed for bankruptcy protection twice
since 2010. The first bankruptcy was dismissed because he didn't follow through
on a repayment plan approved by the court. A second bankruptcy petition was
filed in March.
There were no existing violations on the collapsed building,
and Campbell had proper permits for the work being done, according to Carlton
Williams, of the city's Department of Licenses and Inspections.
The city issued a demolition permit for the four-story
structure on Feb. 1. Records show the property owner as STB Investments Corp.,
a company linked to prominent businessman and developer Richard Basciano, who
has been best known as the owner of porn theaters in New York City and
Philadelphia.
Messages left at the company's New York offices were not
immediately returned.
The accident happened on the western edge of downtown,
between the city's business district and its main train terminal, 30th Street
Station. The block had long been a seedy link between gleaming skyscrapers and
the busy area around the station.
The collapse involved an empty building that once housed a
first-floor sandwich shop and apartments above. The thrift shop was on one
side. The other side was an adult bookstore and theater that had been taken
down within the last few months.
A demolition expert wondered what precautions were taken to
protect the Salvation Army store, especially since it remained open. Stephen
Estrin, a Florida contractor who has testified as an expert at several trials
involving building collapses, also questioned whether the demolition was being
done by hand or with machinery. A piece of equipment with a claw device was
seen amid the debris Wednesday.
"This is an inner-city demolition of a masonry
building, which would normally be done manually because of the inherent risk —
predictable if certain things are not done very slowly and very carefully — of
a collapse," Estrin said. "One of the problems with claw work is it
sets up a vibration in the walls."
Records show the collapsed building was sold to STB in 1994
for $385,894. Plans tentatively called for the block to be redeveloped into
retail stores and apartments.
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