Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Support beam collapse leads to 5 construction worker injuries at Hyatt House Hotel hotel construction site in Orange County, FL


UPDATED 9:13 PM EDT Jun 28, 2016


ORLANDO, Fla. —WESH 2 News is learning new information about an accident at an Orange County construction site Tuesday morning.


Several workers were hurt when the section of floor they were working on collapsed beneath them.

It happened at the site of a future Hyatt House Hotel near the Artegon Marketplace.

A city inspector said a beam holding up the floor section split in two and collapsed. The Orlando Fire Department said it's lucky the five workers pouring concrete only fell to the floor directly below them and not all the way to the ground.

An inspector with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration spent hours Tuesday taking measurements and talking to officers from Stuart-based Phoenix Building Corporation about the section of flooring that collapsed around 3:30 a.m. leaving five workers injured.

"Ultimately it could have been a fatality," said Lt. Dave Bauss, with the Orlando Fire Department.

Bauss, who is with the Orlando Fire Department's high angle rescue team, said the five injured workers are lucky they only fell to the floor below and not all four stories to the ground. Three of the injured people were able to walk down to get treated. Two reportedly suffered broken bones and had to be brought down in a basket and taken to the hospital.

"They stayed on the level of the incident, which was good for us as far as rescuers getting there," Bauss said.

In a press release, Phoenix Building Corp. blamed the accident on "a failure of shoring equipment." The company also issued the following statement:

"Phoenix Building Corporation is cooperating fully with investigators and cannot comment until the investigation is complete."

The names of the injured were not immediately made available. Another worker who stopped by the job site said he was told it will be shut down for as long as a week while the investigation continues. The worker said it's common for concrete to be poured on the floors and spread early in the morning to avoid high temperatures and inclement weather later in the day.

An OSHA spokesman in Tampa said the investigation is just beginning and had no further update.

"Code Enforcement was on scene this morning. They found no code violations and there is no active investigation. They assisted with ensuring the site is secure while OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) does its investigation," the mayor's office said.





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Five people were injured this morning when the floor of hotel under construction on International Drive collapsed, police said. The accident happened at a site that had been previously cited by safety inspectors.

The workers fell at least 8 feet to the floor below them and had to be rescued by Orlando fire crews.

Emergency medical crews took three of the injured to a local hospital. None of their injuries is life-threatening, according to Orlando police. The other two were treated at the scene.

Officers responded just before 3:30 a.m. to the site near the Artegon Marketplace, just south of West Oak Ridge Road, to find the injured workers.