Collapse at Tropicana
not sure if that has been reported but...i have parked at that garage at least a dozen times not the area right there but the area to the left wow!!
Collapse at Tropicana
4 dead, 20 injured as five floors of parking garage fall
By BRIDGET MURPHY Staff Writer, (609) 272-7257, E-Mail
ATLANTIC CITY With a rumble that pierced the air like a jet engine, the top floor of a new 12-story Tropicana parking garage collapsed as construction workers poured its concrete deck Thursday, sending it and four more stories pancaking down as hundreds of people inside ran for their lives.
Four workers died, including three whose bodies were trapped for hours. Twenty-one more were injured at the site of the $245 million casino expansion.
Workers scrambled out of the structure as rescuers began arriving at about 11 a.m.
Chaos broke out as workers, some shedding tears, desperately searched for their fellow union brothers and police worked with site foremen to account for the missing.
"I was on the third level, right there when the whole stairwell came down," said Ed Lex, 42, of the Local 89 Insulators union. Lex fought his way out of the building 40 minutes after the collapse. "We just ran and got out. It was like the Twin Towers, smoke and debris everywhere. It was a dark cloud. You had to run through the hallway sucking down debris."
Tropicana hotel guest James Norton witnessed six or seven men crashing down with the debris as he looked out his room window.
"It was like a sliding board," the Baltimore man said.
The impact of the collapse, which happened in the part of the structure closest to Atlantic and Brighton avenues, shook nearby streets.
It began when a corner of the top deck gave way. People ran out of nearby businesses and homes to see if a plane had crashed.
"Everybody was asking 'Where was the plane? Where was the plane?,'" said Luis Loaiza, 25, who works at an auto parts store nearby and looked up at the garage moments after the collapse. "There were guys up there standing with their hands on their heads like 'Oh God.'"
The 2,400-space garage project is part of Tropicana's $245 million expansion that was due to open in March 2004. It also includes a 502-room hotel tower, convention space, and a themed retail, dining and entertainment center called The Quarter.
"The terrible thing is the loss of the lives and the impact on all their families. It's a horrible thing to contemplate," said Dennis Gomes, president of resort operations for Tropicana parent Aztar Corp. Gomes said authorities have not told him what they think caused the collapse.
Firefighters received reports of possibly 40 people trapped when they first arrived; they rescued 21 people in the next hour after combing through the debris. A huge crane hoisted firefighters up into the garage on a small platform, the same way several victims were brought down to the street and into ambulances.
As the rescues continued, authorities also feared for the safety of those on the ground. While five floors had crashed down, one support wall remained standing. It had, however, split into four pieces, with one main section and a few slender columns arcing precariously skyward.
Members of the state's urban search-and-rescue task force later joined the search for survivors, bringing in dogs that detected humans were still inside. The task force personnel were among dozens of state and local law enforcement officers who worked side by side with firefighters and EMS crews from around the region.
Police had to physically restrain some construction workers who tried to cross police lines to go back inside the building to look for loved ones. "I gotta find my guys," shouted one man who tried to fight his way past authorities.
A police officer even stopped a priest who approached the site about an hour after the collapse, but then waved him inside the collapse zone when he saw his clergy collar.
"Go to Brighton and Pacific," he told the priest, "That's where you're needed most."
Several blocks were closed to traffic for the entire day, causing gridlock throughout the resort. Route 40/322 was shut down for part of the afternoon and all major arteries into the city were choked.
As the state's urban search-and-rescue team hunted for survivors, Gov. James E. McGreevey consoled the families of some of those confirmed dead, also sharing a prayer with the mother of one worker who was among three still missing hours later.
"She's hoping against hope. This is as heart-wrenching as it gets," he said.
McGreevey said the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, would fully investigate the accident, including whether lead contractor Keating Building Corp. followed safety regulations.
Keating, based in the Philadelphia area, is ranked 147th in the Engineering News-Record list of the country's 400 largest contractors. It has been involved in at least nine major Atlantic City projects totaling at least $5 million in construction in the last decade.
"This is a difficult time. Obviously, our first concern is the well-being of the people that are injured or missing," Keating said in a statement.
Paul Roskoski, the lead OSHA investigator for the region, said part of the probe would include investigating whether the concrete was laid too fast, without time for it to dry.
Absecon-based Fabi Construction Co. is the project's concrete subcontractor. Last October, three construction workers were injured, two seriously, when a one-story structure on Pacific Avenue in the same Tropicana expansion project gave way as concrete was being laid. In 1995, a construction worker died during an accident that happened during another Tropicana expansion project here.
The project's lead architecture firm, California-based Wimberly Allison Tong & Goo, would not comment on Thursday's collapse.
"I was told not to accept any calls at this time," said a receptionist at the firm's Los Angeles office.
Officials with the project's secondary architect, SOSH Architects of Atlantic City, did not return a phone call.
Authorities said the floor where the collapsed stories were resting started to bow and, three hours after Thursday's collapse, parts of the building were still moving.
"There is an immediate fear of collapse of the structure as we speak," Mayor Lorenzo Langford said in an afternoon press conference. "Join us in prayer and hope that this catastrophe doesn't get worse than it already is."
Seventeen victims were taken to Atlantic City Medical Center's City Division; two went to the hospital's Mainland Division in Galloway Township. Two more victims were taken to Shore Memorial Hospital in Somers Point.
One rescued victim died at the hospital, Public Safety Director Bob Flipping said. By 7 p.m., one victim who was presumed dead still was trapped in the debris as rescuers brought another victim out to a waiting ambulance at Iowa and Monterey avenues.
Construction workers and rescuers set up an impromptu command post there, about a block from authorities' main staging area, at about 2 p.m., about 40 minutes before one of the deceased workers' bodies was lowered to the street in a service elevator.
On the ground, about 100 construction workers formed a huddle on a platform around the elevator. Using white sheets, wooden poles and nails, the hardhats built a tunnel for rescuers to walk through as they put the victim into an ambulance, taking off their helmets as a show of respect as the body passed them.
Of the injured, some suffered head injuries, thoracic injuries and broken bones, ACMC Regional Trauma Center director Dr. Gabriel Ryb said Thursday night.
Authorities did not identify the injured or deceased, but planned to work through the night shoring up the building to prevent further collapse.
not sure if that has been reported but...i have parked at that garage at least a dozen times not the area right there but the area to the left wow!!
Collapse at Tropicana
4 dead, 20 injured as five floors of parking garage fall
By BRIDGET MURPHY Staff Writer, (609) 272-7257, E-Mail
ATLANTIC CITY With a rumble that pierced the air like a jet engine, the top floor of a new 12-story Tropicana parking garage collapsed as construction workers poured its concrete deck Thursday, sending it and four more stories pancaking down as hundreds of people inside ran for their lives.
Four workers died, including three whose bodies were trapped for hours. Twenty-one more were injured at the site of the $245 million casino expansion.
Workers scrambled out of the structure as rescuers began arriving at about 11 a.m.
Chaos broke out as workers, some shedding tears, desperately searched for their fellow union brothers and police worked with site foremen to account for the missing.
"I was on the third level, right there when the whole stairwell came down," said Ed Lex, 42, of the Local 89 Insulators union. Lex fought his way out of the building 40 minutes after the collapse. "We just ran and got out. It was like the Twin Towers, smoke and debris everywhere. It was a dark cloud. You had to run through the hallway sucking down debris."
Tropicana hotel guest James Norton witnessed six or seven men crashing down with the debris as he looked out his room window.
"It was like a sliding board," the Baltimore man said.
The impact of the collapse, which happened in the part of the structure closest to Atlantic and Brighton avenues, shook nearby streets.
It began when a corner of the top deck gave way. People ran out of nearby businesses and homes to see if a plane had crashed.
"Everybody was asking 'Where was the plane? Where was the plane?,'" said Luis Loaiza, 25, who works at an auto parts store nearby and looked up at the garage moments after the collapse. "There were guys up there standing with their hands on their heads like 'Oh God.'"
The 2,400-space garage project is part of Tropicana's $245 million expansion that was due to open in March 2004. It also includes a 502-room hotel tower, convention space, and a themed retail, dining and entertainment center called The Quarter.
"The terrible thing is the loss of the lives and the impact on all their families. It's a horrible thing to contemplate," said Dennis Gomes, president of resort operations for Tropicana parent Aztar Corp. Gomes said authorities have not told him what they think caused the collapse.
Firefighters received reports of possibly 40 people trapped when they first arrived; they rescued 21 people in the next hour after combing through the debris. A huge crane hoisted firefighters up into the garage on a small platform, the same way several victims were brought down to the street and into ambulances.
As the rescues continued, authorities also feared for the safety of those on the ground. While five floors had crashed down, one support wall remained standing. It had, however, split into four pieces, with one main section and a few slender columns arcing precariously skyward.
Members of the state's urban search-and-rescue task force later joined the search for survivors, bringing in dogs that detected humans were still inside. The task force personnel were among dozens of state and local law enforcement officers who worked side by side with firefighters and EMS crews from around the region.
Police had to physically restrain some construction workers who tried to cross police lines to go back inside the building to look for loved ones. "I gotta find my guys," shouted one man who tried to fight his way past authorities.
A police officer even stopped a priest who approached the site about an hour after the collapse, but then waved him inside the collapse zone when he saw his clergy collar.
"Go to Brighton and Pacific," he told the priest, "That's where you're needed most."
Several blocks were closed to traffic for the entire day, causing gridlock throughout the resort. Route 40/322 was shut down for part of the afternoon and all major arteries into the city were choked.
As the state's urban search-and-rescue team hunted for survivors, Gov. James E. McGreevey consoled the families of some of those confirmed dead, also sharing a prayer with the mother of one worker who was among three still missing hours later.
"She's hoping against hope. This is as heart-wrenching as it gets," he said.
McGreevey said the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, would fully investigate the accident, including whether lead contractor Keating Building Corp. followed safety regulations.
Keating, based in the Philadelphia area, is ranked 147th in the Engineering News-Record list of the country's 400 largest contractors. It has been involved in at least nine major Atlantic City projects totaling at least $5 million in construction in the last decade.
"This is a difficult time. Obviously, our first concern is the well-being of the people that are injured or missing," Keating said in a statement.
Paul Roskoski, the lead OSHA investigator for the region, said part of the probe would include investigating whether the concrete was laid too fast, without time for it to dry.
Absecon-based Fabi Construction Co. is the project's concrete subcontractor. Last October, three construction workers were injured, two seriously, when a one-story structure on Pacific Avenue in the same Tropicana expansion project gave way as concrete was being laid. In 1995, a construction worker died during an accident that happened during another Tropicana expansion project here.
The project's lead architecture firm, California-based Wimberly Allison Tong & Goo, would not comment on Thursday's collapse.
"I was told not to accept any calls at this time," said a receptionist at the firm's Los Angeles office.
Officials with the project's secondary architect, SOSH Architects of Atlantic City, did not return a phone call.
Authorities said the floor where the collapsed stories were resting started to bow and, three hours after Thursday's collapse, parts of the building were still moving.
"There is an immediate fear of collapse of the structure as we speak," Mayor Lorenzo Langford said in an afternoon press conference. "Join us in prayer and hope that this catastrophe doesn't get worse than it already is."
Seventeen victims were taken to Atlantic City Medical Center's City Division; two went to the hospital's Mainland Division in Galloway Township. Two more victims were taken to Shore Memorial Hospital in Somers Point.
One rescued victim died at the hospital, Public Safety Director Bob Flipping said. By 7 p.m., one victim who was presumed dead still was trapped in the debris as rescuers brought another victim out to a waiting ambulance at Iowa and Monterey avenues.
Construction workers and rescuers set up an impromptu command post there, about a block from authorities' main staging area, at about 2 p.m., about 40 minutes before one of the deceased workers' bodies was lowered to the street in a service elevator.
On the ground, about 100 construction workers formed a huddle on a platform around the elevator. Using white sheets, wooden poles and nails, the hardhats built a tunnel for rescuers to walk through as they put the victim into an ambulance, taking off their helmets as a show of respect as the body passed them.
Of the injured, some suffered head injuries, thoracic injuries and broken bones, ACMC Regional Trauma Center director Dr. Gabriel Ryb said Thursday night.
Authorities did not identify the injured or deceased, but planned to work through the night shoring up the building to prevent further collapse.
