1 Philadelphia firefighter was killed and 3 other fighter-fighters have been injured in a catastrophic building collapse early this morning. A fire broke out on the 300 block of West Indiana Ave around 2am at a food restaurant called “Star Pizza Fish and Chicken”. Philadelphia Firefighters successfully extinguished the flames but at around 3:30am the building collapsed with firefighters still inside. The collapsed resulted in an “all-hands” dispatch to rescue the trapped firefighters. At around 04:13am rescuers started to pull injured firefighters from the debris and transport them to Temple Hospital for treatment. At about 05:00am another firefighter was rescued from the rubble. All trapped personnel were removed from the collapsed building by around 07:00am.
At around 9am this morning Deputy Fire Commissioner Craig Murphy addressed the media on scene and announced the tragic death of a Philadelphia Firefighter who was involved in the collapse following the fire. Deputy Murphy also confirmed that 3 other firefighters were injured and hospitalized. He did not give their conditions. The Philadelphia Fire Department has not yet released the name of the fallen firefighter but did say that he was a 27-year veteran of the department.