Amid rubble, a patient, hopeful search

Each time they found a dead body, they said a prayer, halting their search to stand in silence.

Mostly, though, the rescuers found piles of clothing. Secondhand apparel riddled the debris of the collapsed Salvation Army thrift store on Market Street, tangling with the pieces of brick and lumber through which they delicately sifted.

Thirteen hours into their search, they were used to mistaking piles of clothing for a body. But when yet another stretch of fabric was uncovered, they stopped their search anyway.

A rescuer felt for a body. He found one. And it moved.

"She arched her back," said Craig Murphy, chief of the Fire Department's Special Operations Command Division, at a news conference Thursday. "And I can tell you how [the rescuer] felt. He was scared. He was surprised. He was like, 'Oh, my God,' and put his hand up in the air and said, 'We got a live one!' "

The rescue crew had found Myra Plekan, 61, who remained in critical condition Thursday, according to a spokeswoman at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

When Plekan was freed from the debris, Murphy said, she said little except to tell her rescuers, "I tried to call you."

Murphy, along with Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers and other officials, spoke to reporters after their search and rescue efforts officially ended at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, about 30 hours after the building collapse at 22d Street and Market.

They described a dangerous operation in which rescuers pushed forward to find someone alive even as the death toll eventually rose to six.

As they painstakingly forged their way through the debris, they worried that more pieces of the building next to the thrift store could fall in on the rescue site. They kept an eye on what was left of the collapsed structure next door and pressed on.

Murphy said rescue dogs led them to spots where people could be trapped. And the FBI helped rescuers trace cellphone signals, which pinged in those same areas. But the search teams remained uncertain of how many people had been in the store when the building collapsed.

The rescuers eventually made it into the basement, which was clear, allowing them to focus on the first floor, where all of the victims were found.

As they clawed through the wreckage in search of the dead, Ayers said, paramedics and firefighters paused for a solemn, silent moment each time they found a body.

"Even in those moments when we just pulled out a body or someone who lost their life, we press forward," he said. "Because we believe that there's a void somewhere in there where someone is just waiting for us to get them."