Eyewitnesses Speak To CBS 3 About What They Saw, Heard At Scene Of Collapse
By Chelsea Karnash and Jericka Duncan
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Several eyewitnesses spoke to CBS 3 about what they saw and heard at the scene of a deadly building collapse in Center City on Wednesday (see related story).
The collapse, which happened at 22nd and Markets Streets shortly after 10:30 a.m., injured 13 people and left one person dead.
Kate Slyman, who heard the collapse, was walking outside at Market and 19th to her apartment when the building fell.
"All of a sudden, I heard a rumble and the ground shake, so I immediately took off the other way," Slyman said. "And about 15 minutes later, I heard sirens."
"My first thought was, 'terrorists,'" Slyman added.
Eighteen-year-old Jordan McLaughlin, who was on the scene immediately after the collapse and helped rescue two people, described the firefighters and officials arriving within three to five minutes.
"I tried to help people out, there was a wooden roof…and we pulled people out – we ended up getting two people out," he said. "There were three to four people that were found within the first 15 minutes."
Jericka Duncan speaks to a construction worker...
Dan Gillis, a construction worker, works across the street from the collapse and took video with his iPhone.
"By the time we got there, the police were there, the fire department was there…They were pushing us back. There was nothing much we could do at that point," he said.
Gillis also told Jericka Duncan that he and his fellow construction workers felt something may not have been "right" at the site where the building collapsed.
"I got here about a week ago, and they were working on that building…there was no bracing, there was nothing holding that wall up," Gillis said. "You could totally see something was wrong since they started that job…It was bound to happen sooner or later."
