Mayor Michael Nutter held a late-night news conference.
View full sizeA building being demolished collapsed Wednesday near downtown Philadelphia, killing at least six and injuring at least 13. Philadelphia's mayor says the Wednesday collapse of a downtown building that was being demolished has killed six people.
Mayor Michael Nutter and fire officials earlier had reported one woman was killed and 13 people were injured in the accident.
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 held a news conference about 11 p.m. to update people on what happened.
One woman was pulled from the rubble of the Salvation Army thrift store two hours after the 10:45 a.m. collapse when rescuers heard her voice, city fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers said. Rescuers had been prepared to dig through the rubble all night because they didn’t know how many people were in the thrift store when the building collapsed on it.
Survivors were taken to hospitals with mostly minor injuries, and some had been treated and released by evening.
Government officials are at the scene, including representatives of the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
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.
The collapse 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.
Maj. John Cranford, of The Salvation Army in Philadelphia, said officials were coordinating with the police and fire departments, and sent their own disaster response team to the site to serve survivors and first responders.
“Our No. 1 concern is for the safety of our customers and the employees who were involved,” he said. “We ask for the public to pray for those involved."