A fire early this morning at a transformer at the SEPTA sub-station at 33rd and Market Streets disrupted rush hour El and trolley service. As of 9:30 a.m. service on the Market-Frankford Line had been restored, but shuttle buses are still carrying passengers on several trolley lines.

The Philadelphia Inquirer has reported that one SEPTA worker sustained a “non life-threatening” injury.

WPVI ran a story yesterday about the gospel concert fundraiser at the Monumental Baptist Church (4948 Locust St.). The concert was held in cooperation with the Walnut Hill Community Association, which has raised some $5,000 for fire victims, according to the story. That includes a $1,000 donation from Mayor Michael Nutter, who was on hand for yesterday’s concert.

Here’s the video:

The demolition of the Windermere Court Apartments at 48th and Walnut, which had been on hold, proceeded today.

Crews have begun to remove the top floors on the southwest corner of the four-story building near where the Jan. 10 fire began. The demolition had been delayed as residents pressured the building’s owners and the city to allow them to retrieve more of their belongings and giving stranded pets some additional time to be rescued or leave the building.

The West Philly-based feline rescue group City Kitties ended their rescue efforts inside the building on Feb. 19 as warm weather melted ice inside the building leaving the building more unstable. City Kitties, the Walnut Hill Community Association, Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell’s office helped residents make their stories known throughout the region. City Kitties has set up a website – windermerefirepets.org – to help keep alive the concerns that came up in the fire’s aftermath.

Residents have also filed a class-action lawsuit against building owners, David and Sam Ginsberg, and management company, Windermere Court Management Corp. The suit alleges that the building was not equipped with the proper fire suppression equipment – sprinklers and smoke alarms – and that the building had not been regularly inspected.

The Philadelphia Fire Marshall’s Office has confirmed that the Feb. 16 fire at 4500 Walnut St. above Saad’s Halal Restaurant was the work of an arson.

Deputy Chief Frank Bonner would not pinpoint the exact cause of the fire, which destroyed three floors of apartments above Saad’s, but did say it was intentionally set.

“It’s an open investigation,” Bonner said today, noting that anyone with information on the fire should notify the 18th police district.

He also confirmed that the man shown in a video first released on West Philly Local being led from the building and handcuffed during the fire is not a suspect in the case.

The case now goes to detectives in the 18th police district.

The fire began on the third floor of the four-story building, trapping residents on the top floor. All the residents were rescued from the fourth floor and two people were taken to hospital for minor injuries.

We are happy to report that Saad’s Halal Restaurant at 4500 Walnut St. has reopened after a fire on Feb. 17 that heavily damaged the three floors of apartments above the restaurant.

The fire began on a third floor apartment, according to the Philadelphia Fire Commissioner’s Office, and the cause is still under investigation. The fire destroyed the top two floors of the building, forcing out about two dozen residents. The apartments will require extensive rebuilding and the roof of the building will likely need replaced.

Saad’s suffered some water damage and minor smoke damage, but is back in business.

The fire commissioner’s office also confirmed this morning speculation that smoking in bed caused the Feb. 16 fire at the single-story Transition to Independent Living Inc. building at 4536 Spruce St. The official explanation was “discarded cigarette in unit 4.”

Windermere Court residents lined up into the night last night to try to get some of their stuff back. Most of them didn’t get much.

Residents were asked to make a list of things they wanted from their apartments. In some cases they drew maps of where things like documents were. The catch was that all of the stuff had to fit into two large garbage bags. The building’s management assigned a handful of demolition workers to search the nearly 100 apartments for items. Residents were escorted a couple at a time through a locked fence into the building courtyard to retrieve what the crews could find.

As we reported yesterday, residents have filed a class action lawsuit against the buildings owners and management.

The demolition of the Windermere is scheduled to begin today.

We wanted to share some video we shot late yesterday of people’s stories of getting their belongings back and the fairly humiliating process they had to go through. Here it is: