Fear and confusion at Campbell's other work sites
The city's Department of Licenses & Inspections slapped cease-work orders on two properties they say Griffin Campbell worked on.
A NARROW ALLEY sits between Sandra Hansen's door and a gutted, three-story brick shell that's missing its facade.
The interior demolition project on tiny Butler Avenue in Center City made Hansen, 26, a medical student at Temple, a little nervous over the past couple months. But the contractor, Griffin Campbell, assured her everything was safe.
On Wednesday, when a building being demolished by Campbell collapsed onto a Salvation Army thrift shop, killing six people, Hansen became weary because she knew he had a job on Market Street he was rushing to get done.
"We're on the end here and we'd be the ones who died if this thing fell down," Hansen said yesterday in the alleyway.
On Wednesday night, while firefighters were still searching through the rubble at 22nd and Market, the Department of Licenses and Inspections slapped a candy-cane colored "cease operations" order on the door of the Butler Avenue rowhouse.
The door was the only remaining physical structure on the home's facade, which was covered by a billowing blue tarp.
The city says Campbell also had a permit to do alterations at 1300 Walnut St., a yogurt shop, but the "cease operations" notice was put on the property next door called Rosewood, a cocktail bar connected to Woody's, around the corner. No one at the yogurt shop could recall any work being done there, and Michael Weiss, one of Woody's owners, didn't think Campbell did work for him either.
"I think it's a total miscommunication with the address," Weiss said.
Weiss said he wouldn't be able to open Rosewood until today.
Another property the city said Campbell worked on near Girard Avenue and Front Street didn't have a cease-operations order on the building - an unfinished, three-story building covered in plywood and crumbling stucco. The owners couldn't be reached.
The owners of the rowhouse on Butler couldn't be reached either but Hansen said her landlord believes the building is safe, even though it doesn't have outside support beams.
Campbell's crew had taken some time off from the job, Hansen said, because he said he needed to get the Market Street property done. Another neighbor, Annette Earling, said Campbell's construction crew seemed young.
"I noticed they were very young and looked inexperienced," Earling said. "They seemed like they were doing a good job though."
Today on PhillyDailyNews.com: Mourning those who died in the Center City building collapse.