THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 19, 1995 TAG: 9507190414
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE MATHER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 101 lines
For two hours early Tuesday, thick, wet cement chugged from powerful pumps onto the third floor of the city's $21.5 million jail addition. Then, as commuters joined the morning rush hour, construction workers heard the unsettling sound of metal twisting and breaking.
``I heard two loud cracks, and by the time I turned around, the third floor was collapsing,'' said construction worker Mingo Peterson, 33. ``People were falling, people were running, but there was nowhere to run. . . . I was worried about my men.''
As Peterson watched, the middle of the third floor collapsed. More than 100 tons of oozing cement funneled through the floor's center like sand moving through a huge hourglass.
The cement partially buried some of the six workers who had tumbled about 12 feet onto the jail addition's second floor.
Rescue workers with chomping hydraulic cutters freed the dazed and injured from the tangled web of steel reinforcing bars and wet cement. Workers dumped sugar on the cement mixture to prevent it from hardening.
Although some injuries were serious, none was life-threatening, police spokesman Larry Hill said. Three of the injured workers walked away from the collapse. And by late Tuesday, only one of the workers was still in the hospital.
No one on Tuesday knew why the temporary shoring failed during what construction officials said was a routine procedure. Representatives of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration are investigating the accident.
By fortunate coincidence, the Fire Department's specialized technical-rescue truck and its crew had arrived for training at the downtown station only moments before the accident happened.
Crew members heard the collapse a block away and sped to the jail even before the first 911 call was placed.
Firefighters removed four injured workers from the collapsed structure using the on-site, 20-story construction crane and a special rescue basket.
A firefighter dangled with the rescue basket as the crane swung each worker from the building to the parking lot and waiting ambulances.
The rescue operation was briefly halted when the sound of a hovering TV news helicopter drowned out rescuers' communications with the crane operator.
One firefighter was treated for heat exhaustion.
``Overall, (the rescues) went very well,'' said fire Capt. Edward Senter. ``They used their training, their experience and some ingenuity.''
The accident happened in one of the final stages of floor construction, workers said.
Temporary floor braces made of steel, aluminum and lumber had been erected to contain and support the cement. A grid of reinforcing steel bars had been secured in place. The grid would be the backbone of the cement floor.
Chris McKinnon, a spokesman for S.B. Ballard, the company pouring the cement, said the procedure is ``usually a low-risk operation.''
``The possibility of something like this happening is very rare,'' McKinnon said.
Lou Haddad, president of general contractor Armada-Hoffler Construction Co. of Chesapeake, said crews would spend Tuesday cleaning up and could resume construction of the 317-bed, $21.5 million jail addition today.
The jail addition, which has been under construction since October 1994, will be eight stories high and have 317 beds for female prisoners. It is scheduled to be completed by October 1997. MEMO: Staff writer Mara Stanley contributed to this story.
ILLUSTRATION: BILL TIERNAN/Staff color photos
The third floor of Norfolk's $21.5 million jail addition, left,
collapsed Tuesday morning. Above, a crane carries Bruce Evans, a
Norfolk firefighter, and an injured construction worker to safety.
Two construction workers are trapped in the collapsed structure.
They were waiting until three other workers with more serious
injuries were brought to safety.
Graphic
HOW IT HAPPENED
Research by M.MATHER,graphic by R.D.VOROS/Staff
Color photos
PAUL AIKEN/Staff
Norfolk firefighter Bruce Evans rides in a special rescue basket as
the construction crane swings an injured worker from the building to
the parking lot and waiting ambulances.
Color photo
BILL TIERNAN/Staff
Workers watch the rescue: from left, an unidentified man; Vinson
Mears of the Eastern Shore; James Ward of Alexandria; and Harvey
Bull of the Eastern Shore.
KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT GENERAL NORFOLK CITY JAIL INJURIES by CNB