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A badly injured construction worker pulled from the rubble of a collapsed parking garage at Miami-Dade College early Thursday has died, police said, raising the death toll to three.
Miami fire and rescue crews rescued the construction worker around 1 a.m. Thursday at the Miami-Dade College in Doral, Fla., Miami fire officials said. But in order to get the man out, medics had to amputate both of his legs above the knees, authorities said. Another trapped worker who had been freed was in critical condition.
Rescue workers continued Thursday to search for the last person believed to have been in the structure when it collapsed.
Alan Diaz / AP
Firefighters remove a victim from the rubble early morning Oct. 11 in Doral, Fla, after a section of a parking garage under construction at Miami-Dade College campus collapsed.
Eight people were hospitalized at Miami-area hospitals after the Wednesday collapse, according to a statement from Miami-Dade Fire Rescue.
Hundreds of rescuers rushed to the scene Wednesday afternoon when a portion of the five-story parking garage at 3800 N.W. 115 Ave. fell in what authorities call a “pancake-style collapse.” Police said it appeared that only construction workers were on site.
Read the original report | More from NBCMiami.com
The garage was under construction and had yet to open, so no students were in danger, said college spokesman Juan Mendieta.
The debris was about 20 feet high and a crane and heavy truck were inside the work area when the garage collapsed. Streets around the garage were blocked off.
Victoria Buczynski of Miami said she saw the collapse while she was working at Gurkha Cigars directly across the street from the construction site.
"It fell to the ground like a house of cards," Buczynski said. "The construction workers started running out, screaming. It was loud. Our entire building shook."
J Pat Carter / AP
Rescue officials survey damage in the collapsed parking garage at the Miami Dade College West campus in Doral, Fla. on Oct. 11. One person is still missing.
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The construction of the 1,855-space garage was nearly complete. Ground was broken on the $22.5 million project in February, and it was to be finished in December, according to the website of the contractor, Ajax Building Corp.
William P. Byrne, Ajax president and chief executive officer, said in a statement said an internal review was being launched to determine the cause.
"While we do not yet know the cause of this tragic collapse, we are committed to working actively and cooperatively with our design and construction partners and local, state and federal authorities to determine the exact cause of this accident," the statement said.
The statement also said safety was a priority for the company.
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Leave a Comment:
romney we built this parking garage
It was built with Obummers plans!
unreal.....the first two comments....that's why i say... at least for another month...
Capt'n Morgan / Busch 2012
The garage workers weren't building the garage, Obama was.
yep alan, but it was bushs fault it fell
Typical Miami Construction--- a City filled with scam artists, scumbags, and scoundrels.
Anyone watch South Beach Tow?
People died and you make sick political comments?
Condolences to the families of workers killed. Horrid! Could be design, materials, or construction error. Don't be too hasty to make conclusions, but you can count out "act of God."
Garages these days are built in pieces brought in from off site and stacked. You get one piece falling and they all come tumbling down. It's amazing more buildings don't collapse like this. Godspeed to all the workers dealing with this.
There isn't really anything wrong with pre-fab work and bringing out to the site to put together, but its the quality of the materials. Someone was trying to cut corners and save money and it cost lives. In some way I am glad it happened when it did before it was opened or it could have been full of students and staff of the college when it came down, hundreds could have been hurt and killed otherwise. My prayers to the workers and their families.
Right to Work state with another fatal accident. Right to work for less is no going to say Right to work for a funeral. Hey Romney didn't you say you would make Right to Work national on day one. Well here's what you get, untrained, unskilled help in construction. Legal, smart citizens will not work construction for MINIMUM WAGE.
I'm sure the Teabaggers and Republicans are breathing a sigh of relief since no job creators were hurt.
kcroofer!! Good for you.You said it JUST RIGHT. To bad others don't WAKE UP !!!
22 million dollar project .....
Safety and structural integrity bypassed for the lowest contractor bid......
Remember the WTC? It was inspected by engineers and was going to be torn down because some yahoo forgot to put the isolator washers on the outside sheeting mounts. The galvanic reaction of the salt water in the air caused massive cancer on those buildings. Now you know the real reason why they demo'd the WTC and blamed it on some box knife wielding arabs who couldnt even fly a Cessna.
I read that $22 million cost and couldn't believe it. This is a parking garage. It doesn't have enclosed floors. It is not intended for human occupancy, so where did the money go? Someone cut corners on this project. Some inspector took a day or two off instead of actually looking at this project. Well constructed projects built with appropriate materials simply do not collapse for no reason.
Not really - most are engineered with a factor of safety and if constructed correctly then there is no problem...how many collapses do you hear of everyday versus how many are opened? An inspector can only verify that what is in place matches the drawings...they are not engineers or architects...Silly comment
It amazes me that these things don't collapse all the time. Every time I park, I look up at the ceiling beams on my way in and wonder how they can support all those vehicles as cracked-looking as the concrete is. When you sit in your car listening to the radio, you can feel your car bouncing as others drive past. It's scary. All those beams are held together by bolts with only narrow little ledges of concrete nestled over cross beams to fight the constant pull of gravity.
It's a good thing the bridges are flexible or they would fall down more often.
The concrete you see is reinforced by something you don't see: rebars. Incidentally, that give you feel is intended. The effects of stress are reduced when their is "give" built in. The effects of wind, weight and temperature changes are taken into account during design and construction. It is why there are expansion joints on concrete roads.
Hell, did you see all the 2x4's they were using for bracing? Only in Florida the fraud capital of the U.S.!!
are you kidding? ever hear of Chicago, NYC. L.A. or the biggie ..Washington D.C.? Heck, Florida wouldnt even make the top ten.
Any other states currently have as governor, a man who was president of a hospital corporation which had to return over 1.4 BILLION $$$, to the gvt, because of Medicare fraud? But, he got off?? And, his parachute was so golden that he used $70,000,000 of it to buy the governorship of the state! Match that Chi, NY, DC, Cal, Tx! When you can top Elion Gonsalez, Rilya Wilson, Hanging Chad and a dozen others, then you might be in the same league as Florida!
OBTW, will the rest of your states please have your voting for President, soon?! We've been hearing anti-Obama commercials down here for TWO YEARS, and its getting O-L-D!!
This is the second garage that collapsed in less than 3 years. First one was in Key West A parking garage for the airport. That contractor was a Non-Union that hired aliens. I am wondering now if this contractor is non-union?
Another Non-Union scab project brought to you by the oh so wonderful Right To (DIE) Work Florida Republican/Teapublican Tricky Gov. Rick Scott. What's a human life worth to these political scumbags $0.00 NOTHING!!! Hey Rick, did you and you Teapublican/Republican controlled State Legislature also destroy Workman's Comp so much these guys will be in debt for the rest of their lives? That is IF they survive.
I wonder if the families want LESS REGULATIONS NOW???
Sad that workers/pedestrians will die because the moron populace listen to the fools on the Right claiming less regulations are needed, when in fact, more are needed. But greed and stupidity will prevail if teabaggers have their way.
I only wish Rush Slimeball and Gov. Scott and Jebby were touring this garage at the time of collapse.
Speaking of non-union, remember when the ceiling in that tunnel in Boston collapsed onto passing motorist.....oh wait that was unionized workers who built that tunnel....but i'm sure it was their fault.
...ya, they looked "Mickey Mouse" ......the wood bracing
They don't know the cause of this collapse but I can take a guess. A beam broke off the crane while being hoisted. If fell on the constructed portion of the garage, and the whole thing fell like a house of cards.
If it were shored up properly using standard construction practices even a beam falling off a crane would not cause this type of tragedy. There were corners cut, without doubt, which is not unusual in non-union construction.
@ Lucas;
Way to jump the gun,I believe Illinois has us beat in the fraud division, and I do not know what you mean by that remark. I doubt they were using 2 x4s to hold up the parking garage sir, use your head. My guess is that the crane or the "heavy truck" hit a support beam on a lower floor , and caused a chain reaction.
I checked this company out(Ajax) and they have quite a few big jobs under their belt, so I doubt there was "fraud" involved,they just completed a 21 million dollar sherrifs office in Daytona.
Sorry, forty years in the building trades. Even a truck backing into or a beam falling on top of will cause a structure to collapse. In prior accidents of this type, it is usually sub-standard concrete (bad pour) or the structure was not shored properly. These are not "accidents".
@ micheal;
Did you mean "will not" cause a collapse? The dump truck could have backed into part of the structure with "sub standard concrete", Which would make us both right. I would be sadly disssapointed if this was caused by shoddy work.
@micheal;
Seems the crane could be the culprit.
Styro
In reality the way these garages are built is that there is 1) alot of re-bar in the beams 2) there are sets of three cables spaced about two inches apart with another set every foot away. these cables are usually only 40 feet long.
It takes alot for all of the sets of cable to break.
Think of it as being in an elevator, five cables have to break for the car to crash and the car can operate on just one cable.
Each deck of the parking garage is the same way alot of cable has to break before the garage can collapse.
Epper.......your correct about the cables inside the precast but now the question is did envirnmental issues have any role in the precast curing process at the manufacture (ie: heat....salt air contamination....cure time....ect).........could the pre-stressing of the cables not be adaquite........if it was a main column failure there are no prestressed elements so could the design be bad.....too many posts on here are blaming the contractor and making comments on weither they were union or non-union but noone is thinking outside the box that it could have been a material problem from the suppliers.....could have been a major design flaw or many many other issues
There are WAGs and SWAGs in this discussion. WAG = Wild Ass Guess and SWAG = Sophisticated Wild Ass Guess. No need to wait for the facts.
I agree
Well considering there's almost detail on the collapse yet, it doesn't hurt to speculate as we start our Newsvine commentors forensic study of this disaster.
and as humpty knows a bit about falling i would guess his is a SWAG
Does anyone know any structual engineers?
HDumpty, Thanks for the chuckle.. still laughing.
Good one, but we have to speculate when we have no facts in front of us. Like static said it doesnt hurt to speculate. I seriously doubt it was the structural integrity,I believe something knocked it down, more than a structural flaw, now is that a WAG, or a SWAG?lol
Whatever happened,it is really a tragedy for those that perished,and a rare occurence on a finished project such as this in America.
We always said SWAG = Scientific Wild Ass Guess. While WAGS are pure guesses, SWAGS are meant to be guesses based on a couple of scientific assumptions.
So why does anyone NEED to speculate? No one knows much other than it happened and they need to either find that last guy in the ruble or determine he was some place else.
Why is it so important for all of you to state what happened when you don't know? I've been involved in disaster investigations. The people doing the investigation have a lot of work ahead of them before they can even come up with theories of what might have happened and prove or disprove those theories.
Give everyone a break and wait for the report of what happened that will come out in a few months and probably mean nothing to any of you because will have forgotten about this.
@RC;
Have you never watched Columbo sir? lol. We are just sharing our 2 cents sir. Give us a break
No really? We are so ignorant, we thought they would have all the answers by 3. We did not know they needed to investigate anything,thanks for letting us know ,I will be more patient now.
its construction, accident's do and will continue to happen, just like its harvest season hence farm accidents will go up. be careful, think ahead, never stop asking yourself "what if".
It was due to open soon? Oh my ghosh.
Curse you Issac Newton....this is all YOUR fault..............................:)
see my earlier post.under 2 dead.. my condolances.
this type of collapse is all to frequent.
support laws making contractors stop stacking columns with no floors constructed .
Maybe they should have added temporary crossbracing between columns and beams?
yep .....lets knee jerk this and create more asinine laws, that ALWAYS helps...
or we could just repeal the laws of gravity...............
IA.ScooterTramp
Don't give the politicians any ideas about repealing laws that work, like the law of gravity.
I.A. -Yea, get rid of OSHA. Either you're stupid or never worked in construction, or both.
How stupid that we have to sit through an ad for Dr. Scholl's Foot Pads before viewing a news video about a construction worker who lost his legs. Is anyone awake at NBCNews.com?
What if we used the same engineering design as in a well constructed corrugated box, for floor design. It would reduce the weight and increase the strength. Stop stacking solid concrete slabs on top of one another. Accidents do happen, it's tragic when they do. It is possible to build a structure from the ground up maintaining structural integrity while reducing the weight as you go higher.
Supervisor was probably not paying much attention... is what I think.
Its very sad these workers are dead. It's tragic. But I have to say it's a good thing it collapsed now (assuming it was bad construction that made it collapse), than having it collapse a few months from now when it would have been full of students.
Probably a non union job, safety doesn't matter until someone dies or you get caught by OSHA.
OSHA isn't allowed to come to Florida job sites it's against the Teapublican rules.
Its show me the money, rush through the production, cut here and there. Get a bonus for getting it done early...What a game plan..Non Union Workers!!Grease the palms of the inspectors..lol
Having a union insures no buildings collapse? OSHA not allowed? And thug union bosses don't grease inspector's palms?
You people are delusional or you are liars.
Keep drinking the Kool-Aid.
No, having a union means you get workers who have been trained in a specific field. Non-union typically means you pick up some illegals waiting down at labor ready on the way to the jobsite.
Yes, how many union jobs has the cranes collapsed in NY seems I remember at least 2 recently.
Isn't Ajax the same company that Wile E. Coyote used in all of his failed attempts to get the Road Runner?
ACME.
Ajax is a powdered cleanser or a dishwashing liquid.
I did not see any sign of re-bar in the photos. Maybe cost cutting measure!
The parking decks don't contain rebar only the columns, everything else is prestressed cables. They are prestressed to give the concrete an upward cambar so it can hold the weight of all the cars.
I went back & looked at the picture all I saw in the concrete was welded wire fabric I didn't see any cables at all. Might of been shoddy design. I worked for a str. engineer for 15 yrs doing drafting & I've never done a parking deck w/o the prestressed cables.
It will ultimately fall back on the architects and engineers who calculated the stress loading. It is unlikely that actual construction resulted in the collapse as inspections for blueprint adherence would have revealed shoddy construction methods. Tragic that men had to die in this incident but imagine the potential carnage if the garage were open for student use when it collapsed.
Jim, The project was still under construction, so there was virtually no stress loading compared to what the full building would be expected to hold in operation...
@Jim
After 25 years living and working in Florida, it's almost never the engineering that's a problem. It's the unlicensed contractors, shoddy work, shoddy workers, corner cutting of material such as not enough steel, or not following specifications by the manufacturer.
It's up to the construction manager to make sure the specs are followed. They have so many jobs now where the contractor does both it's a recipe for disaster. It's like the old saying the fox guarding the hen house.
Its amazing how they charge a arm and a leg to park..But SOME of these Garages are in poor condition and this is the result or the result of piss poor planning...
Oooh.....the pancake effect. Hard to survive from something like that. How tragic.
You can thank your "Right to Work" law, Florida. Right to work states have higher accidents and deaths in construction due to the race to the bottom in wages. You end up with McDonald style workers constructing buildings that thousand of people use everyday.
Just think what will happen when you start hiring minimum wage firefighters and policemen.
Heads will be rolling ! Sounds like someone might have been texting and stacking.