911 calls show fear, confusion after Center City building collapse
Emergency calls made after the deadly building collapse in Center City in June show fear, confusion and chaos as a building being demolished toppled onto a thrift store.
Six people died in the June 5 disaster at 22nd and Market Streets. NBC Philadelphia has posted 14 pages of transcripts of calls to 911 made in the minutes after the incident.
The first call for help in the transcripts came at 10:41:39 a.m. The caller appears to compare the collapse to the Sept. 11, 2011 terrorist attacks.
"It's a tremendous amount of dust and I think you have to send some ... the ambulances over there," says the caller, who later says, "It looks like 911."
Another caller, at 10:41:43 a.m., tells the 911 operator to send help quickly: "There's a big old accident at a place where you buy clothes ... it has fallen in the building next door and it fell on top. Please hurry."
The operator tells the caller "you need to calm down" and connects the person to the fire department.
"Let them be alright, please ... oh ... let them be alright," the caller later says.
Calls also reflect the panic of the aftermath of the incident.
One caller reports that someone called the person's office saying "a bomb went off Trader Joe's."
The calls show both dispatchers and witnesses struggling to understand what occurred.
The fire department asks the person to explain what's happening and the caller responds: "I hear the engines ... I can't see anything it's so dusty. You can't even see the building."
In another call, a dispatcher asks the caller if anyone is hurt.
"I tried to see but there was so much smoke out there," the person says.
One caller, who was apparently near but not in the collapsed buildings, asks the 911 operator if it's necessary to evacuate.
"That's why my question is should I be evacuated because I can't tell what's going on ... I called the desk before I called you guys. I called the front desk and nobody's answering at the front desk."
The dispatcher asks whether the caller needs medical attention and later says: "Alright so listen if they need to evacuate ... they'll ... they'll come into the apartment building and get you guys out, okay?"
An excavator operator has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and other offenses related to the collapse, and the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office has convened a grand jury to look into the incident. Multiple civil lawsuits have also been filed over the collapse.