Demo firm takes down half a block in Fairmount without permits, probe finds

"It's like an unseen hand guided them and protected them through the process of demolishing buildings without using permits," an L&I inspector said of Ashaw. Like other department employees interviewed, the inspector asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal.

L&I inspectors noticed the illegal demolition through the spring and summer and issued one verbal and one written stop-work order to halt it, but those efforts were sidestepped or ignored, city records show.

Although the project was shut down for a short time, it was ultimately allowed to continue until all the buildings were down, an inspector familiar with the project said.

"Taking down buildings without permits sends a chill through everybody," the inspector said. "It shows someone in the department is doing favors. And if more demolitions without permits are allowed, people will be hurt."

Told of the Poplar Street demolition, former L&I Commissioner Bennett Levin decried how it was handled, noted the potential threat to the public, and said the matter merited further investigation.

"I think this is something that goes to the district attorney," said Levin, who served as commissioner between 1991 and 1995. "We need to stand up and say we are not going to tolerate this behavior."

The exact date in April that Ashaw began the demolition is unclear. But as it progressed, it was unwittingly well-documented.

A neighbor took thousands of time-lapse photographs of the demolition between April and September. The photos were reviewed by The Inquirer, which shared them with two L&I inspectors.

In one photo, the bucket of an excavator is poised at the top of an unsupported, three-story masonry wall on the corner of 26th and Poplar Streets. At such a point in a demolition, the inspectors who reviewed the photos said, the contractor is supposed to either take the wall down by hand or pull it inward, away from the street.

In this case, the next photo shows, the excavator pushed the wall outward, toward Poplar Street.

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Demo firm takes down half a block in Fairmount without permits, probe finds