Salvation Army

The heavy equipment blamed for causing a building collapse that killed six people last Wednesday was only to be used that day for removing debris, and the contractor in charge of the site "didn't see" the excavator doing demolition, his defense attorney said Tuesday. Kenneth Edelin, attorney for contractor Griffin Campbell, said his client was on the job site at 22d and Market Streets when the building fell on the neighboring Salvation Army thrift shop. "He was scared to death, just like everybody else," Edelin said.

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.

I STOPPED by the super swank Symphony House residences yesterday to have a chat with Richard Basciano about his killer building. "Is he expecting you?" the cranky concierge asked. Well, I didn't know if the owner of the crumbling building that flattened a neighboring Salvation Army thrift store was expecting me . But he should've been expecting someone - like officials from the city seeking answers about his choice of a discount demolition crew, for starters. Basciano's company paid some insta-demolition crew $10,000 for a job demo experts said should have cost closer to $250,000.

For the first time that night, it was quiet on the pile. The rescue dog wasn't barking. The excavator digging up debris from the building collapse at the Salvation Army thrift shop was turned off. Firefighters from the elite Rescue 1 unit, drained from eight hours of pulling bodies from the rubble, were off to the side, awaiting their replacements and drinking water. Amid the mess and ruin, Capt. John O'Neill, 50, a search-and-rescue specialist from Squad 72, stood by himself.

The Eastern Pennsylvania and Delaware Division of the Salvation Army installed new leaders Thursday night in Plymouth Meeting. The new officers, W. Todd and Carol Bassett, both lieutenant colonels, will supervise a body of 46 area corps, or churches, with more than 5,000 members.

Glenn Sheehan and his wife Anne Jensen want to make sure no more ex- convicts with violent backgrounds are unloaded on trusting people like themselves who participate in prison-reform programs, according to the couple's attorney, Thomas V. Hunt. Sheehan and Jensen are still recovering from injuries they suffered April 1 during a stabbing rampage at their Lower Merion Township archaeological firm. Two women who worked for them were killed, one of them allegedly after being raped.

For homeless Victor Athy, a possible shutdown of some or all of the Salvation Army's soup kitchens simply means that he will have to "move on. " The 33-year-old man and other homeless men interviewed yesterday at the Salvation Army soup kitchen at 715 N. Broad St. said they hope the Army doesn't run out of money. "I'll just go from one (kitchen) to the next if they shut them down," said Athy, who has been a regular in the soup line for the past nine months. The Salvation Army is experiencing its worst financial crisis since it began operating its four soup kitchens in January 1983, said Emily Klenk, director of community relations.

Every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, anywhere from 40 to 60 hungry people show up at the Salvation Army's Darby Corps Community Center for a free, hot meal. But last week, any of the food program's beneficiaries who had not heard the news about the Tuesday night fire at the center were greeted by a makeshift sign announcing that the program was indefinitely postponed. The food program is just one of the social services that the Salvation Army has provided in Darby Borough.

A Salvation Army store clerk filed suit Thursday against the owner and contractor in charge of demolition of the Center City building that collapsed on her store the day before. Nadine White, 54, of South Philadelphia, filed an emergency motion in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court asking for preservation of evidence and the right to start inspecting the wreckage on Saturday. The suit names as defendants Richard Basciano, the owner of the four-story building at 2136-38 Market Street; his company, STB Investments Corp.; Griffin T. Campbell; and his firm, Griffin Campbell Construction.

Life was hitting James Francis hard. His wife abandoned him and the two kids. The job was going sour. Finally the electric company sent a shut-off notice. The Philadelphia native swallowed his pride and took himself to the Salvation Army. Praise God, another light bill paid. That was long ago. Francis is Lt. Francis now, married to a fellow lieutenant in the same blue-suited army, doing the Lord's work. In a Frankford neighborhood that is trying to stave off encroaching drugs and despair, he runs day-care, latch-key and senior-citizen programs, a soup kitchen, basketball leagues and music classes.

For the first time that night, it was quiet on the pile. The rescue dog wasn't barking. The excavator digging up debris from the building collapse at the Salvation Army thrift shop was turned off. Firefighters from the elite Rescue 1 unit, drained from eight hours of pulling bodies from the rubble, were off to the side, awaiting their replacements and drinking water. Amid the mess and ruin, Capt. John O'Neill, 50, a search-and-rescue specialist from Squad 72, stood by himself.

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.

The heavy equipment blamed for causing a building collapse that killed six people last Wednesday was only to be used that day for removing debris, and the contractor in charge of the site "didn't see" the excavator doing demolition, his defense attorney said Tuesday. Kenneth Edelin, attorney for contractor Griffin Campbell, said his client was on the job site at 22d and Market Streets when the building fell on the neighboring Salvation Army thrift shop. "He was scared to death, just like everybody else," Edelin said.

The excavator operator charged in the deaths of six people at a Salvation Army thrift store in Center City turned himself in to police Saturday. Sean Benschop, 43, refused to give a statement on his role in Wednesday's collapse, choosing instead to exercise his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent. He will be arraigned, police said - it's unclear when - and an investigation will continue, they said. Benschop's arrival at Central Detectives headquarters, just off the Benjamin Franklin Parkway on North 21st Street, capped several days of scrutiny surrounding the Hunting Park resident.

I STOPPED by the super swank Symphony House residences yesterday to have a chat with Richard Basciano about his killer building. "Is he expecting you?" the cranky concierge asked. Well, I didn't know if the owner of the crumbling building that flattened a neighboring Salvation Army thrift store was expecting me . But he should've been expecting someone - like officials from the city seeking answers about his choice of a discount demolition crew, for starters. Basciano's company paid some insta-demolition crew $10,000 for a job demo experts said should have cost closer to $250,000.

A Salvation Army store clerk filed suit Thursday against the owner and contractor in charge of demolition of the Center City building that collapsed on her store the day before. Nadine White, 54, of South Philadelphia, filed an emergency motion in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court asking for preservation of evidence and the right to start inspecting the wreckage on Saturday. The suit names as defendants Richard Basciano, the owner of the four-story building at 2136-38 Market Street; his company, STB Investments Corp.; Griffin T. Campbell; and his firm, Griffin Campbell Construction.

HIGH-SCHOOL senior Jordan McLaughlin was strolling through the sunshine on Market Street yesterday morning, his mind on making the next train home after early dismissal from school, when the world exploded. At least it seemed that way. With a thunderous roar and clouds of dust and smoke, a partially razed building at 22nd and Market streets collapsed onto a Salvation Army thrift shop as he passed by. Stunned, he raised his iPhone and clicked off a few quick snapshots. Then he ditched his backpack and sprinted toward the shop, where he'd just seen two customers enter moments before.

The Salvation Army of Greater Philadelphia is getting a $100,000 donation from the Walmart Foundation to help fight hunger and poverty. A spokesman for the human-services agency said the gift would be presented Thursday. The agency will use the money to support its new Peer Mentoring Program, which is based on Witnesses to Hunger, part of the Center for Hunger-Free Communities at Drexel University's School of Public Health. Witnesses to Hunger, created by Drexel professor Mariana Chilton, began as a program in which Chilton gave cameras to 40 low-income North Philadelphia women and asked them to photograph their lives.