Firefighter Dies In Building Collapse, 5 Other People Pulled From Rubble

A firefighter was killed when a building collapsed in Philadelphia early Saturday (June 18) morning. The fire department responded to reports of a fire at a three-story restaurant and residential building around 2 a.m.

While they managed to extinguish the flames, the building collapsed about 90 minutes later, leaving six people trapped.

Rescuers managed to pull four firefighters and a city inspector out of the rubble and rushed them to the hospital. Three of the firefighters and the city official have since been released. One of the firefighters remains hospitalized in critical but stable condition.

Unfortunately, another firefighter, who was a 27-year veteran of the department, did not survive.

"Our department lost a member bravely fighting a fire and then caught in a building collapse after the fire was over," 1st Deputy Fire Commissioner Craig Murphy said. "We just finished up pulling ... our brothers out of this place. It's going to be a rough few weeks coming up," Murphy told reporters Saturday morning.

Investigators have not determined what caused the fire but do not believe it was suspicious. They are also trying to figure out why the building collapsed.

"You can't predict this," Murphy told reporters. "This was just a catastrophic accident that (has) really hurt our department."