6 Dead Several Injured in Philadelphia Building Collapse

06 Jun, 2013

Rescue crews clawed through rubble on Thursday searching for more survivors the day after a building collapsed in downtown Philadelphia, killing six people and injuring 14 others.

Investigators, meanwhile, tried to determine what caused a four-story building that was being demolished to collapse onto a neighboring Salvation Army Thrift Store at 10:45 a.m. EDT (1445 GMT) on Wednesday, burying shoppers in concrete and debris.

In a round-the-clock search, rotating fire companies picked through the heaps of concrete chunks and splintered wood at the scene on Philadelphia’s busy Market Street, partially blocked off since the disaster, a spokeswoman for the Philadelphia Fire Department said on Thursday.

Mayor Michael Nutter suggested at a late night news conference on Wednesday that the number of casualties could rise.

“We still do not know how many people were inside the thrift store or possibly on the sidewalk” at the time of the collapse, Nutter said. “If someone else is in that building, they will find them.”

Shortly after the mayor concluded his press briefing, a 61-year-old woman was pulled from the rubble alive, more than 12 hours after the collapse, and taken to a hospital in critical condition.

“They were digging, they felt her, and then she was able to respond and squeeze their hand,” Michael Resnick, Philadelphia’s public safety director, told Reuters.

“She was talking to the firefighters who were pulling her out,” Resnick said. “It feels outstanding to pull out somebody who is alive.”

The overnight search by dozens of police and firefighters was lit by large spotlights as residents watched. Several streets remained blocked off.

Authorities declined to identify the dead other than to say that they included one man and five women who had all been inside the thrift store when the building next door came down.

Reuters

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