6 dead, 14 injured in Philly building collapse
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.
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 today.
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 ka-boom,” 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.”
