A 4-story building in Philadelphia unexpectedly collapsed today while it was being the process of being demolished. The cause of the collapse of the building will likely remain under investigation for a number of months.
Determinations will need to be made as to whether the collapse was due to defects in the structure of the building or because of mistakes of the wrecking crew that was in the process of demolishing the building. It has so far been reported that one woman was killed and 13 others were injured due to this tragic accident.
Rescue workers are continuing to search the rubble in hopes of finding additional survivors. No heavy equipment has yet been used in the search as firefighters were using their buckets to move bricks away from the area of collapse. Search dogs have also been put to work in the event someone is still buried in the debris.
In a large city like Philadelphia, property is not always kept in good repair. Landlords, owners of property and caretakers of property are often neglectful in keeping premises safe. A problem with unsafe premises is that often dangers presented are hidden, and those injured due to unsafe conditions usually had no connection with the care of the property to begin with.
Unfortunately, building code regulations for premises are often not met or merely ignored. Sometimes the property is unsupervised and contains no warnings of potentially dangerous conditions. Since such dangers are disregarded, injured parties and their attorneys have little recourse but to sue those parties responsible for the disrepair.
Source: Fox News, “1 reported dead as search for survivors continues in Philadelphia building collapse,” June 5, 2013