Crews prepare to demolish collapsed Grays Ferry garage in effort to recover 2 missing workers

Crews were preparing late Friday afternoon to carefully deconstruct the partially collapsed Grays Ferry parking garage, as part of a meticulous recovery effort for two iron workers lost in the rubble and presumed dead.

What’s left of the under-construction Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s garage after the deadly collapse, which claimed the life of another worker pulled from the debris, is extremely weakened and “could collapse at any moment,” officials have said. The building’s unstable condition has forced rescuers to proceed slowly and carefully, even as the two workers remain unaccounted for.

“We are laser focused on safely seeing the demolition of that structure occur while working extremely hard to ensure dignity in the recovery of any of the human souls that we are able to return to their families, with dignity, and a whole lot of prayer,” Mayor Cherelle L. Parker said at a news conference Thursday night.

The three workers were at the 30th Street and Grays Ferry Avenue construction site Wednesday about 2:15 p.m. when a precast concrete roof segment in the stairwell tower “failed” and fell through every level, reverberating like a crack of thunder. The workers’ names have not been made public, but Parker said all were members of Philadelphia’s Ironworkers Union Local 401.

Throughout Friday morning, first responders in hardhats and neon vests reinforced the perimeter around the seven-level structure. Hums and thuds of heavy machinery echoed as a crane was erected over several hours and helicopter propellers flapped overhead. Affixed to the crane was a Local 401 flag.

About 15 miles away, outside the union’s Northeast Philadelphia lodge, the flag billowed at half-mast beneath a cloudless sky. Gov. Josh Shapiro on Friday ordered flags be lowered in mourning. Midday, two men stood locked in a hushed conversation, while another sat alone on a grassy curb in the parking lot. A representative for the union declined to comment.

Since the structure caved in, authorities have been monitoring its stability. Lasers showed “severe movement” and deemed the building even more dangerous than anticipated, Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Jeffrey W. Thompson said.

Four dogs — two trained to find survivors and two trained to find human remains — were sent into the ruins in hopes of locating the workers, but their search found no signs of life. As of Thursday night, Parker described the city’s continued efforts as “shifting from rescue to recovery.”

» READ MORE: Two missing workers at CHOP garage ‘presumed deceased'

“This tragedy is a painful reminder of the risks that working men and women in the building trades face every day to help build and strengthen our city,” City Council President Kenyatta Johnson said in a statement, whose district includes the garage.

It’s unclear how long the deconstruction may take, and officials have been reluctant to give a timeline as the structure’s stability must be continually reevaluated. The nearby Grays Ferry Shopping Center has remained closed, and pedestrians and traffic have been rerouted around Grays Ferry Avenue from 29th to 31st Streets.

CHOP officials did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on its plans for the garage. The project — a 300,000-square-foot space intended for hospital workers — proved controversial in the neighborhood and was criticized for its scale. The building would be by far the largest new free-standing garage built in recent Philadelphia history.

Residents of streets surrounding the worksite began receiving leaflets and verbal warnings ahead of the demo from the Department of Licenses and Inspections, offering “pre-demolition” inspections of their homes.

Magge Foster, a block captain on South 29th Street and an organizer against the garage, said she contacted L&I to take the agency up on the inspection offer. However, as of 2:15 p.m. Friday, no crew had arrived.

“I called at 10 a.m. this morning to ask for the inspection. I figured I’d take them up on it,” Foster said. “But they haven’t come by yet or called me or anything.”

» READ MORE: Failure of precast concrete roof is suspected to have triggered Grays Ferry parking garage collapse

Parker has promised a thorough investigation into what caused the garage to collapse, and the District Attorney’s Office was at the site ensuring any evidence was preserved.

Precast concrete is a common construction material — especially in parking garages and bridges — that is poured off site and then its slabs are fit together. While accidents are rare, they can be deadly because of the material’s sheer weight.

“We are going to get to the damn bottom of what happened,” the mayor said at the news conference. “We will empower the tools of transparency while we are doing it.”