Victims of Philadelphia building collapse
PHILADELPHIA » Six people were killed when a building being demolished collapsed Wednesday and nearly obliterated an adjacent Salvation Army thrift store.
The mayor’s office identified the victims as Anne Bryan, Roseline Conteh, Borbor Davis, Kimberly Finnegan, Juanita Harmin and Mary Simpson. Efforts to reach the families of Conteh, Simpson and Harmin on Thursday were unsuccessful.
Here are the stories of the other victims:
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Bryan, 24, was a student at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts who was described by teachers there as "dynamic, inquisitive and smart."
Her family called her a talented art student and generous friend, sister and daughter.
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"That she will not be here to continue to touch the lives of those around her is of intense pain to all of our family and her friends. This pain is fresh and it runs deep," the family said in a statement that asked for privacy.
Bryan had been shopping at the thrift store.
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Davis, 68, of Darby, was a Liberian immigrant who died working at the thrift store.
His stepdaughter called him a hardworking man and devoted husband.
"He loved my mom so much," said Maryann M. Mason, who said they’d been married several years. "They looked so good together."
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Finnegan, 35, of Philadelphia, was working her first day at the downtown store after about a year at a Salvation Army shop in the city’s Roxborough neighborhood, where she lived. She was newly engaged, according to her brother, Bob Coleman.
"The main thing, I think right now, is how incredibly happy she was," Coleman said.