Fox news item:
At least six people are dead and 14 others are injured after a four-story building being demolished in downtown Philadelphia suddenly collapsed, Mayor Michael Nutter said late Wednesday.
Early reports had been that one woman had died in the Wednesday morning accident, but rescuers using buckets and their bare hands to move bricks and rubble kept working through the evening.
Body bags were removed from the collapse site at night, and authorities then turned off the floodlights that had lit it. Nutter said the city's emergency workers had been "diligent, determined, focused" in their rescue efforts.
"If anyone else is in that building, they will find them," he said.
A 14th survivor was pulled from the rubble early Thursday. Deputy Fire Chief Robert Coyne said 61-year-old Myra Plekam was pulled from the debris more than 12 hours after a building collapsed and that she was awake and talking to rescuers.
At least 13 other people were hospitalized at nearby trauma centers with minor injuries and listed in stable condition.
Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers said Wednesday afternoon a 35-year old white female was killed in the collapse, MyFoxPhilly.com reports.
"We do not know how many people were actually in the thrift store this morning when the wall collapsed on the building," Nutter said earlier. "So the search and rescue will continue ... until we literally get to the basement and have uncovered everything we can possibly uncover."
Marc Newell told the Philadelphia Inquirer that he heard an "unbelievable rumble," "like a freight train."
"You could hear the moaning," he told the paper.
The collapse involved a Salvation Army corner thrift store and a four-story building next door with a sandwich shop on the first floor.
Carlton Williams of the city's Department of Licenses and Inspections said there were no existing violations on the building and the demolition company had proper permits for the work they were doing.
However, several witnesses told the Associated Press they had been casting a wary eye on the demolition site and questioned how the workers were tackling the job.
Roofer Patrick Glynn said he had been watching workers take down the doomed building over the past few weeks, and he 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."
Glynn and Anthony Soli were working on a roof atop a nearby building when they heard what sounded like two loud bangs or explosions. They immediately ran down the scaffolding and helped pull out two women and a man.
Steve Cramer, who has been working as a window washer across the street for several days, 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.
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 told The Associated Press that Campbell Construction was handling the demolition. A message was left at a listing for Campbell Construction in Philadelphia.
Veronica Haynes was on the fifth floor of an apartment building across the street.
"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," she said. "Then you saw the whole side of the wall fall down ... onto the other building."
High school student Jordan McLaughlan said he saw several people on the ground being given oxygen by rescuers after the collapse.
"It was hard to breathe, there was a lot of dust everywhere," McLaughlan said.
At least six people are dead and 14 others are injured after a four-story building being demolished in downtown Philadelphia suddenly collapsed, Mayor Michael Nutter said late Wednesday.
Early reports had been that one woman had died in the Wednesday morning accident, but rescuers using buckets and their bare hands to move bricks and rubble kept working through the evening.
Body bags were removed from the collapse site at night, and authorities then turned off the floodlights that had lit it. Nutter said the city's emergency workers had been "diligent, determined, focused" in their rescue efforts.
"If anyone else is in that building, they will find them," he said.
A 14th survivor was pulled from the rubble early Thursday. Deputy Fire Chief Robert Coyne said 61-year-old Myra Plekam was pulled from the debris more than 12 hours after a building collapsed and that she was awake and talking to rescuers.
At least 13 other people were hospitalized at nearby trauma centers with minor injuries and listed in stable condition.
Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers said Wednesday afternoon a 35-year old white female was killed in the collapse, MyFoxPhilly.com reports.
"We do not know how many people were actually in the thrift store this morning when the wall collapsed on the building," Nutter said earlier. "So the search and rescue will continue ... until we literally get to the basement and have uncovered everything we can possibly uncover."
Marc Newell told the Philadelphia Inquirer that he heard an "unbelievable rumble," "like a freight train."
"You could hear the moaning," he told the paper.
The collapse involved a Salvation Army corner thrift store and a four-story building next door with a sandwich shop on the first floor.
Carlton Williams of the city's Department of Licenses and Inspections said there were no existing violations on the building and the demolition company had proper permits for the work they were doing.
However, several witnesses told the Associated Press they had been casting a wary eye on the demolition site and questioned how the workers were tackling the job.
Roofer Patrick Glynn said he had been watching workers take down the doomed building over the past few weeks, and he 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."
Glynn and Anthony Soli were working on a roof atop a nearby building when they heard what sounded like two loud bangs or explosions. They immediately ran down the scaffolding and helped pull out two women and a man.
Steve Cramer, who has been working as a window washer across the street for several days, 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.
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 told The Associated Press that Campbell Construction was handling the demolition. A message was left at a listing for Campbell Construction in Philadelphia.
Veronica Haynes was on the fifth floor of an apartment building across the street.
"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," she said. "Then you saw the whole side of the wall fall down ... onto the other building."
High school student Jordan McLaughlan said he saw several people on the ground being given oxygen by rescuers after the collapse.
"It was hard to breathe, there was a lot of dust everywhere," McLaughlan said.
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