A parking garage partially collapsed Wednesday afternoon in Philadelphia’s Grays Ferry neighborhood, killing one person and leaving two others missing as crews searched through the rubble. Emergency services rescued three people when they reached the scene around 2:17 p.m. local time.
The person who died had been taken to a hospital after the collapse. Two other people were also taken to a hospital, treated and released. The surrounding area, including a shopping plaza and other stores, remained closed while emergency crews kept working through the debris.
At the scene, Kurtis Carter described floors dropping one after another as the structure gave way, saying a man was trapped underneath. Fire Commissioner Jeffrey Thompson said the debris removal would take time because crews had to carefully deconstruct the building while the search continued. That work came as officials said the garage was partially constructed, a detail that helped explain both the risk and the slow pace of the response.
Mayor Cherelle Parker said the city would not give up on the missing people and would not rest until everyone was accounted for. She also said the city stood with Philadelphia building trades and Ironworkers Local 401. Philadelphia Animal Welfare Society said all of its staff, volunteers, animals and owned pets in its care were safe and accounted for.
Deputy Commissioner John Stanford urged people to stay away from the location and not come to take pictures or linger on site. With two people still missing and the search tied to a structure that has to be dismantled piece by piece, the next phase is less about the visible collapse than the painstaking work of finding what is left beneath it.
