Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 19, 1995 TAG: 9507190038
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium
Three of the workers became briefly trapped up to their waists in the hardening concrete as rescuers, battling temperatures that were climbing into the 90s, frantically poured sugar into the material to keep it from setting.
Those who were trapped were given intravenous solutions to keep them from dehydrating. Eventually, they had to be cut from the debris, said Don Haupt, director of paramedical services for the city.
``The whole floor caved in,'' Marcus Warren of Portsmouth, one of the trapped workers, said as he sat in an ambulance, his face caked with bits of construction debris. ``The next thing I know, I was looking up at the sky.''
Four workers who could not climb down were strapped into a stretcher basket attached to the 20-story construction crane at the site and lowered to the ground as a firefighter sat next to them to keep the basket stable.
All seven of the injured workers were taken to hospitals for treatment of sprained or broken shoulders, legs, ankles, necks and backs. None of the injuries was life-threatening, said Larry Hill, a police spokesman.
One firefighter was treated for heat exhaustion.
The accident occurred shortly before 8 a.m. within sight of a downtown Norfolk fire station where firefighters heard the collapse and immediately responded.
``They were laying concrete in the temporary shoring that holds it up, and something in there collapsed,'' said John Keifer, the city's director of public works.
``The concrete went first, and everybody slid down on top of it,'' said Chris McKinnon of S.B. Ballard Inc. of Norfolk, the company that was pouring the concrete at the $21.5 million annex, which has been under construction since October.
Approximately 80 cubic yards of concrete being poured for the planned eight-story annex's third floor slid down about 10 feet onto the second floor when its shoring fell.
The second floor held, and the rest of the building did not appear to have suffered structural damage, said Lou Haddad, president of Armada-Hoffler Construction Co. of Chesapeake, the project's general contractor.
Investigators with the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration were on the scene to determine the cause of the collapse.
The 317-bed jail annex is due to be completed in early 1997. Haddad said he didn't know if the collapse would delay completion, although the work had been ahead of schedule.
The collapse forced authorities to seal off a major access point to downtown from Interstate 264 and the Downtown Tunnel at the height of the morning rush hour.
by CNB