A man was killed and a woman was critically injured after the railing on a Center City fire escape collapsed Sunday morning. Building inspectors said the fire escape was deteriorating and the building’s emergency lights and exit signs were not up to code.
It happened at an apartment above Monk's Café on 16th and Spruce Streets in Rittenhouse Square. Steven Lee and the unidentified woman, both in their mid-20s and both residents, fell four stories from a fire escape where they were hanging out, said investigators. The railing they were leaning on gave way. The bolts had been "pulled out of the wall" Scott Mulderig, Chief of Emergency Services for Licenses and Inspections, told the Philadelphia Daily News.
Lee, 25, was killed instantly. The woman was in critical condition at Jefferson University Hospital Sunday night and police were trying to identify her.
“We’re still pretty much in shock because this is a young person, who was just starting his life,” said one neighbor whose husband was related to the man who died.
"We're still trying to get ahold of everybody that needs to know and we're not there yet. We didn't even know as far as funeral arrangements. We can't even see the body just yet. He fell and cracked his skull and it's a hard, hard thing, so we're just still in shock,” said the neighbor.
Licenses and Inspections shut the building down Sunday afternoon, closing Monk’s Café and displacing more than a dozen residents. Investigators found code violations and additional loose railings in the fire escape, the paper reports. Mulderig said the owner of the building has been cited in the past for similar violations according to the paper, which identified the property owner as Sidney Brotman. Brotman had no comment Sunday on fatal accident.
