A Philadelphia firefighter was killed when a building collapsed early Saturday morning, devastating the fire department and shaking the neighborhood.
The victim was identified as 27-year-old veteran Lieutenant Sean Williamson, 51, the mayor’s office said Saturday afternoon, adding that four other firefighters and an L&I inspector were injured. Two of the firefighters were at Temple University Hospital, where they are listed in critical but stable condition.
The collapse of the Fairhill town followed a fire at a popular pizzeria, which has apparently been built without permits in recent years.
“It’s going to be a tough week,” said emotional Deputy Fire Commissioner Craig Murphy at a news briefing just before 8 a.m. near the crash site of Block 300 on West Indiana Avenue in North Philadelphia.
In a brief statement on Twitter, Mayor Jim Kenny called the collapse of the building a “tragic incident” and said he grieved with members of the fire department where his father had worked as a firefighter for 22 years.
Six first aid workers – five firefighters and an inspector from the city’s licensing and inspection department – were initially trapped in the 3:24 a.m. crash. in the morning and this collapse occurred long after the firefighters controlled the fire.
The five who escaped managed to get out of the collapse at different times. One jumped from the second floor of the building, Murphy said. All were rushed to Temple University Hospital and are now in stable condition.
The fire marshal is launching a thorough investigation, Murphy said, but so far no suspicion of wrongdoing.
“You can’t foresee that,” Murphy said. “It was just a catastrophic incident that really hurt our department.”
Circumstances were similar to the death of Lieutenant Matthew Letourneau, who died on January 6, 2018, while fighting a fire in a regular house on block 2200 on North Colorado Street in North Philadelphia. The second floor collapsed and LeTourneau was trapped under the rubble. When firefighters and paramedics arrived about 30 minutes later, he was dead.
Neighbors said Star Pizza & Seafood opened its doors on a three-story property on the corner of Third Street and West Indiana Avenue five months ago.
Half a block from the collapse, Wanda Rivera was awake watching TV just before 2 a.m. when she heard sirens and trucks rushing to the pizzeria.
“It was just a lot of smoke at first, so we thought there was a fire,” Rivera said. “They put out the fire, and then we saw firefighters leave. Then they rushed back again. “
The sound of the fire alarm showed that most of the flames were extinguished by 2:15 a.m. The next hour, engines reported other fires in the city, while a handful of firefighters remained at the scene of the Indiana Street fire with a building inspector. At about 3:25 a.m., the commander shouted on the radio, “Urgent. Three-story collapse. Members inside. “
Fire trucks and medics returned to the spot where they found that the smoldering had collapsed like a pancake. One by one, they identified the survivors of the wreckage – taking them to district hospitals for treatment with reports of severe back pain, abdominal pain, leg pain – but the search for the fifth firefighter will continue in the hours after dawn.
The first responders covered the blocks around Third and Indiana at 7 a.m., where dozens of firefighters, police and paramedics stood in an almost motionless crowd after hours of inspecting the rubble. The smell of burnt wood still wafted through the morning air.
At 7:19 p.m. the mass of firefighters slowly dispersed from the rubble, down and wiping tears from their eyes as they exchanged hugs. Many were left speechless; a few words were said as the rescue effort seems to have come to a tragic end.
Patricia Sermarini rushed to the scene when she saw the signal in the Citizens app for the collapse and the trapped first responders.
She said her son-in-law, a firefighter, was on the scene morning shift. As she made her way to the edge of the American Street scene, she said all she could think was, “I just have to see him.
She was relieved to see her son-in-law approaching the crash site. She said he was one of the firefighters on the scene, helping with the rescue effort – but he was not injured in the collapse of the building. It was dirty with soot and dust, she said, and she hugged him immediately.
A few minutes later, Sermarini said she saw firefighters remove a body from the rubble.
“It’s so awful,” she said. “It’s so difficult for them. They just want to go home to their families. “
It is reported that the building had a pizzeria on the first floor and apartments on top. Property documents show that the property was sold in September 2021 for $ 120,000, months before Star Pizza & Seafood opened.
The owner of Star Pizza & Seafood – listed as Khalil Al-Ashraf in the property registers – could not be found immediately for comment.
The city archives show that no permits have been issued for years for construction and electrical work on the three-story property. Still, photos from a recent real estate list show a new electrical panel on the outside wall along Third Street, as well as a metal staircase leading to an outbuilding on the second floor – none of which appears in Google Street View photos of the building. made in 2019
In addition, the records show that the property does not have active rental permits despite the active apartments on the upper floor. Firefighters did not say if there were any tenants living on the upper floors at the time of the fire.
City building inspectors also cited the property for numerous violations in May 2019, noting problems with the kitchen hood, fire extinguishers, smoke alarms and open junction boxes. These violations were listed as unfulfilled in the city archives again in June 2021, although it remains unclear whether investigators have visited the property since it changed hands seven months ago.
After the inspection in 2019, the city lost a third of its building inspectors, although concerns about hazardous construction conditions and shoddy construction practices have increased. Unlicensed rental units and unauthorized construction were endemic long before staff evictions. The Licensing and Inspection Department did not immediately answer Inquirer’s questions.
Neighbors said the Chinese restaurant Lucky Garden operated in the building about 12 years before the pizza and seafood restaurant.
Herman Soto, Wanda Rivera’s husband, said Star Pizza has a good reputation among neighbors. “It was a really good pizza,” Soto said. “The owners are nice people.”
Xavier Sabi Rivera said his parents owned the building, which housed a billiard room and arcade games in the mid-1990s.
Rivera noted that the long-standing metal staircase on the side of the building, which residents used to access the upper floor, was removed during renovations, but he did not specify a time frame.
This is an evolving story and will be updated.
The office writer Anthony R. Wood contributed to this article.
Add Comment