Demolition continued at collapse site despite worries about danger

Paul Nussbaum, Mark Fazlollah, and Bob Warner, Inquirer Staff Writers Posted: Sunday, July 14, 2013, 3:01 AM

In the weeks before the deadly Market Street collapse, the building's owner repeatedly warned top city officials and Salvation Army officials that the demolition could endanger the adjacent Salvation Army thrift store.

But that did not prompt the city to step in. Nor did it stop the owner from rapidly demolishing the building, with devastating consequences.

E-mails and letters reviewed by The Inquirer show repeated warnings about a possible collapse with potentially deadly results.

"This nonsense must end before someone is seriously injured or worse: those are headlines none of us want to see or read," wrote Thomas J. Simmonds Jr., property manager for the building's owner, in an e-mail to Deputy Mayor Alan Greenberger on May 22. He was complaining about an impasse in negotiations with the Salvation Army, which he claimed created "a situation that poses a threat to life and limb."

That was 14 days before the June 5 collapse, in which an empty four-story building under demolition fell onto the adjacent thrift store.

Six people inside the store were killed. Thirteen were injured.

Correspondence reviewed by The Inquirer shows that STB Investments Corp., the owner of 2136-38 Market St., promised a safer demolition procedure than it actually used, and it pushed forward with the demolition despite its own warnings and its still-unresolved negotiations with the Salvation Army.

The Salvation Army was seeking assurances that demolition would not proceed until a legal agreement was reached about several issues, including protection for the thrift store roof, partial removal of a chimney on the thrift store, and repairs to the common wall and the sidewalk.

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Demolition continued at collapse site despite worries about danger