The NY Daily News
written by Daniel Beekman AND Michael Walsh
Wednesday June 5, 2013
A Center City building collapsed onto a Salvation Army thrift store during a bungled demolition. Officials say they have located all 14 people who were believed to be inside the thrift store, but they haven't stopped searching for more survivors.
A building being torn down collapsed in Philadelphia’s Center City on Wednesday, killing six people and injuring 14 others.
Witnesses said the empty four-story building was bound to fall because demolition workers were being careless.
It crumbled about 10:45 a.m. with a loud boom, raining bricks onto a thrift store and trapping people under rubble.
Search and rescue workers were still combing the site Wednesday night, removing body bags from the scene.
The dead included one man and five women, Mayor Michael Nutter said. More than a dozen survivors were taken to hospitals, most with minor injuries, and one rescue was reported as late as midnight.
"We're hoping that anyone that's inside is in a void and we can have a live rescue," city fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers said. "If not, we'll just take this apart a little at a time."
“It looks like a mini 9/11,” Michael Kenish, owner of the Liberty Bar and Grill across the street, told the Daily News. “The fire and police departments are taking the building that collapsed out of the other building, brick by brick.”
The four-story structure at 22nd and Market Street in the Center City district used to house a sandwich shop and several apartments. A small Salvation Army Thrift Store stood right next door. On the other side was an X-rated adult bookstore and theater that had been taken down within the last few months. The large building caved in during a botched demolition about 10:45 a.m., tearing down the interior of the thrift store.
Several witnesses said they had been casting a wary eye on the demolition site and questioned how the workers were tackling the job. That raised questions about how closely the highly visible spot on Market Street — one of Philadelphia's signature boulevards — was being monitored.
Roofer Patrick Glynn said he had been watching workers take down the doomed building over the past few weeks, and said he suspected a collapse was inevitable because of the methods the workers were using.
"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."
One witness, Dan Gillis, 31, of Cinnaminson, New Jersey, a construction worker on a job across the street, told Reuters he saw a crane remove a supporting beam from the front of the building, and then the wall next to the thrift store started swaying.
Another witness, Jeffrey Fehnel, 48, of Philadelphia, said about the same time a backhoe hit the rear side of the building.
"The building came down. It was like a big blast," Fehnel told Reuters.
Witnesses said they heard a loud rumbling sound immediately before the collapse.
Dozens of paramedics and Good Samaritans joined the firefighters and police officers at the site, as nearby workers emerged from their workplaces to observe the chaos from the street.
“I was parked on the 21st just heading to Market Street, next thing you know it felt like an earthquake," a truck driver Bernie Ditomo told local station NBC 10.
"I said what the hell is going on,” Ditomo added. “My truck is totaled. I am a little dusty and dirty, but I’m alright. I am one of the lucky ones.”
High Schooler Jodran McLaughlin said that it felt as if the ground was shaking underneath his feet.
"There was people that actually fell over,” McLaughlin told CBS Phily. “People started screaming, they ran across the street. There was people inside the building, you heard them scream."
McLaughlin said that he helped two people escape the wreckage just moments after the collapse. Other bystanders ran to help four or five others.
In total, about 125 people were helping to locate survivors in the wreckage and 35 vehicles were at the scene, said Ayers. There is no indication that anyone else is in the thrift shop building, but officials said the rescue effort will last all night.
"We have two dogs that have come out to work the pile to locate others so we know exactly where to dig," Ayers said.
“I've never encountered anything like this before any time in my life and I don't want to see it again,” said Corey Vey, who works nearby.
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.
Authorities said the cause of the collapse was still under investigation.
The incident has led many to speculate that the buildings were not up to the Occupational Safety & Health Administration’s working standards.
There were no existing violations on the building and the demolition company had proper permits for the work they were doing, 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. Online records list the contractor as Plato Marinakos Jr., an architect. He said that Campbell Construction was handling the demolition.
Joanna Hawkins, a spokeswoman for the OSHA, told the Daily News, “The only thing that I can add is that OSHA is investigating the building collapse and has up to six months to complete the investigation.”
Records show the collapsed building was sold in 1994 for $385,894. Marinakos, the architect, said plans tentatively called for the block to be redeveloped into retail stores and apartments.
Real estate mogul Richard Basciano, best known for having owned porn theaters in Times Square, has been identified as the owner of the adult book store.
Basciano could not be reached for comment.
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