The sinking of 300 W. Indiana Ave. in the Fairhill neighborhood of the city occurred shortly before 3:30 a.m., about 90 minutes after firefighters were called in to fight the fire there, and sent his comrades to fight to rescue those who had been left behind. trapped inside, 1st Deputy Fire Department. said Commissioner Craig Murphy.
“Our department lost a member who was bravely fighting a fire and then got stuck in the collapse of a building after the fire ended,” he said.
“We just got our brothers out of this place. It’s going to be a tough week,” Murphy told reporters Saturday morning.
Of the six trapped in total, five – four firefighters and a licensed and inspected city worker – were rescued and sent to a hospital. The licensed worker was released; the four firefighters remained hospitalized Saturday morning in stable condition, Murphy said.
The firefighter who died was a 27-year veteran, Murphy said. No names were released immediately.
The cause of the crash is unknown and will be investigated by a firefighter and others, Murphy said.
Firefighters were called to the building at 1:53 a.m. due to a box alarm and found a fire, which they extinguished, Murphy said.
As firefighters focused on displaced residents and the “overhaul” (looking for the remaining fire in hidden spaces), the building collapsed, Murphy said.
One person jumped from the second floor to avoid being trapped. Others were systematically removed, Murphy said.
During the rescue efforts, rescuers went “in dialogue” with those trapped, including touching the rubble “so that someone could know that someone was there,” Murphy said.
It was a “sloping collapse / pancake,” Murphy said, because while one collapsed material could have fallen flat on a surface, another material could have leaned against a wall, creating space. . “There were a lot of empty spaces,” Murphy said.
At the scene, firefighters and others were nearby or walking around a large pile, rather than at the height of the head, of metal, wood and other debris, a video of CNN affiliate WPVI showed. At least nine agencies helped with recovery efforts, including Philadelphia. police and the American Red Cross, the fire department added on Twitter.
CNN’s Michelle Watson contributed to this report.