Is Salvation Army dodging scaffolding issue?

IT'S DAMN NEAR impossible to get a straight answer from most of the people involved in the tragic Market Street building collapse.

Even the Salvation Army.

Fingers are now being pointed in the organization's direction for the first time since a four-story building crumbled on June 5 and flattened the neighboring Salvation Army thrift shop at 22nd and Market streets, killing six people and injuring 13 others.

Two lawyers have claimed that the Salvation Army rebuffed requests to have protective scaffolding installed on the store's roof before demolition workers began haphazardly tearing down the property next door.

An employee who survived the collapse said she and her colleagues heard bricks slamming onto the store's roof for weeks.

When asked for a response yesterday, Salvation Army spokesman Randall Thomas repeatedly referred a reporter to a statement the organization previously released, which read:

"At various points in time there was communication between The Salvation Army and the attorney of the neighboring building's owner, pertaining to the demolition. The neighbor assured The Salvation Army that they would be taking proper precautions. These discussions were never finalized and we are investigating the full details of the situation."

But Kenneth Edelin, the attorney representing Griffin T. Campbell, whose construction company was tasked with the demolition of 2136-38 Market St., said Campbell wanted to set up protective scaffolding above the store, but wasn't allowed.

"He requested access to the roof of the Salvation Army and was denied by the Salvation Army," Edelin said, adding that Campbell made a second request and was again denied permission.

Campbell, 49, has not been charged with any crimes, but Philadelphia police searched his Nicetown home on Tuesday.

Excavator operator Sean Benschop, 42, was charged over the weekend with six counts of involuntary manslaughter.

Shirley Ball, a shopper who was inside the Salvation Army store during the collapse and survived, filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against Campbell; Richard Basciano, one of the co-owners of the building; Plato Marinakos, the expediter who obtained the demolition permit for Campbell; and the Salvation Army.

Ball's attorney, James D. Golkow, said he's been told that an inspector from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration had recommended that scaffolding and netting be used to shield the shop from rubble.

An OSHA spokeswoman declined to comment last night.

"Three weeks before the collapse, people inside the store made complaints that they could hear bricks thumping against the roof," Golkow said. "There was a gaping crack in their bathroom wall that you could see daylight through. . . . If this was Macy's or Wanamaker's, I don't think that would have been happening."

Late yesterday, the Inquirer reported that Basciano settled an unrelated lawsuit with a man who was injured by falling concrete at another property he owns, at 21st and Market.

- Staff writer Helen Ubinas contributed to this report.

DN Members only: See an interactive graphic showing what went wrong in the building collapse.