A parking garage under construction located in the Doral campus of Miami Dade College partially collapsed this morning, trapping construction workers inside, killing at least one.
According to rescue teams at the scene, the four-floor garage collapsed like pancakes at around 11:40 am, leaving as many as 50 construction workers initially unaccounted for. Witness Victoria Buczynski who worked across the street told Associated Press that the complex "fell to the ground like a house of cards. The construction workers started running out, screaming. It was loud. Our entire building shook." A student of Miami Dade also said that the shock of the collapse was felt from the entire campus.
Now, Miami-Dade's Fire Rescue Lt. Arnold Piedrahita says at least two workers remain trapped. First responders are keeping a line of communication between the rescuers and the trapped victims via a cell phone connection. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue spokesperson Cristina Armand further confirmed that one victim has been killed by the catastrophe. Four workers, at least one in serious condition, have been taken to the hospital and three were tended to at the scene.
So far, we've yet to understand the reason and the origin of the failure but engineers are evaluating the structural integrity of the complex. Priority at the scene continues to be rescue efforts for the workers trapped inside but Piedrahita said, "we can't just start digging through concrete," as further disturbance to the compromised structure may risk getting the victims trapped even more.
Doral Police Chief Ricardo Gomez told CBS Miami, "If there's any good news out of this it's that this was a parking garage under construction. The issue is the structural integrity of the garage has been compromised to the point that it's unsafe to get into the garage."
