Contractor at centre of deadly Philly collapse had passed up MEWP option.
Three weeks before the botched demolition of a four-story Center City building killed six people inside an adjacent Salvation Army thrift store, the contractor passed up a chance to rent an access platform that would have made the job much safer, according to a lawsuit filed in the case.
The cost – $4,224 for a four-week rental – was too high for the building’s owner and the demolition contractor, and resulted in the deadly collapse, the suit alleges.
Richard Basciano – the principal figure in STB Investments, the building owner – and Griffin Campbell, the contractor in charge of the demolition project, “rejected the plan for the boom lift because it was too expensive,” said the lawsuit, filed in Common Pleas Court last week on behalf of Mariya Plekan, a 52-year-old Ukrainian immigrant who was buried in debris for 13 hours after a brick wall collapsed on top of the thrift shop on June 5.
Basciano’s attorney, Thomas A. Sprague, declined to comment on the allegation. Campbell’s criminal attorney, William Hobson, said the demolition contractor “never, never, never rejected any outside technical help” and said he had no knowledge of any efforts to lease a high-rise lift.
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