Investigation Begins Into Collapse That Trapped Worker For Hours
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- A construction worker was trapped when a house collapsed on top of him. Now investigators are looking into what caused that three-story home to come caving in.
Meghan McCorkell has the latest on the investigation.
It took firefighters four hours to free that man. He was part of the construction crew working to renovate that home.
A three-story rowhouse was reduced to rubble. The entire thing landed on top of a worker. It took firefighters hours to free him. Now the investigation into how it all happened begins.
"Oh, man. My house just collapsed," said Lloyd Williams.
Williams owns the home, which was being renovated in the Ridgely's Delight neighborhood near Camden Yards.
"I was hoping to move in the very near future, actually. I won't be able to do that now, unfortunately," he said.
WJZ has obtained video taken three hours before the collapse by crews working on a nearby roof. You can see the wall on the left-hand side starting to buckle. The roofers say they warned the construction crew multiple times.
"You've got to shore this wall up because it looks really easy to come down," said Romeo DeLeon, who works nearby.
It's that wall that building inspectors are now homing in on as the reason the house caved in.
"Right now, our preliminary investigation says that the party wall bowed and caused the rest of the structure to collapse," said Eric Booker, Assistant Comm. of Code Enforcement.
Housing officials say that all the proper permits were in place for the construction project. As for the injured worker, Williams says he is expected to be okay.
"He called me late last night, and he's like, `So tomorrow I can get back to work?' and I was like, `No, dude. Not at all,'" he said.
He hopes to begin the rebuild again soon.
A second worker was also injured in the collapse. He is also expected to be okay.
The house is currently under an emergency condemnation order.
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