Building Collapses on Tiny Philadelphia Street, Contractor Accused in Deadly Center City Collapse Once Worked on Project

A building collapsed overnight along a tiny Center City Philadelphia street. It was once contracted for demolition and construction to one of the men charged in the June 2013 deadly collapse of a building onto a Center City thrift store, according to the city's department of Licenses and Inspections.

“It sounded like an explosion,” said neighbor Laura Vogel.

Griffin Campbell once supervised the project at the end of Butler Avenue near Juniper and Pine streets that came down with a crash late Wednesday trapping two people.

"It didn't look very sturdy," said Vogel. "I haven't seen anyone working on it."

The last time neighbors say they saw significant work on the property was more than two years ago when a contractor showed up with lumber.

"And that was Griffin Campbell — who was supervising that job and he handed me his business card," said neighbor Israel Burshatin.

Two weeks later, Campbell was thrown off the job as Licenses and Inspections pulled his permits after the collapse of a building onto the Salvation Army thrift store at 22nd and market streets that left six dead and 13 hurt. An excavator operator on Griffin's 22nd and Market project pleaded guilty in the case last month while Griffin awaits his day in court.

Campbell's never-finished Butler Avenue project remained in limbo as the building owners attempted to hire a couple different contractors to complete the job, said L & I as they confirmed that neighbors had complained of the property as it sat unfinished. L & I even, at one point, set up a scaffold to protect pedestrians.

"This is a long-going battle that we've had with the owner of this building ever since (Campbell) was thrown off," said neighbor Paul Yannuzzi.

"It's kinda been at the same stage for a long time, which is just the wood and the basic outline of the building. So it didn't seem like anyone was working on it for a while," said Vogel.

“You can’t build a building like this, not done properly and exposed to the weather all this time and not have issues,” said Yannuzzi.

Clean crews began work on Butler Avenue Thursday as neighbors searched for closure.