One worker is missing and 23 were injured after a parking garage under construction in Jacksonville collapsed as the work day began December 6, reported WJXT-TV in Jacksonville.
Choate Construction Company crews were pouring concrete on the sixth floor at the Berkman II Plaza site when a garage section gave way. The construction site is on the Northbank section of the St. John’s River.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has dispatched an investigative team to the condominium project. The Jacksonville Business Journal (JBJ) reported it is the 88th time in 10 years OSHA inspected a Choate project. Twenty-three of those inspections resulted in 44 serious initial violations, four repeat violations and 23 other violations totaling $89,993.
Choate builds corporate office, interiors, medical/biomedical, automotive, institutional, retail, manufacturing, industrial, multifamily, senior living and student housing, according to the JBJ. The company was founded in 1989 and has 374 employees. Choate has constructed buildings in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida. Choate’s $351.9 million in annual revenue in tax year 2004 placed it No. 28 on the Atlanta Business Chronicle's Top 100 Private Companies list in 2005.
Thus far, no fatalities were reported. Jacksonville.com reported 16 workers with non-life-threatening injuries were transported to hospitals and nine other workers were treated at the scene.
“The good news is no injures to workers transported to the hospital are traumatic," Jacksonville Fire-Rescue spokesman Tom Francis said. "Most of those are in stable condition with non-critical injuries."
Family members of the missing worker, Willie Edwards III, were at the scene waiting for word on his whereabouts from rescue personnel.
”Edwards' uncle, James Ferrell, was one of the workers pouring concrete at the site.
"It happened so fast,” Ferrell said. “The next thing I know I was down on the ground, getting up hollering, 'Where you at? Where you at?" he said. "I'm thinking Willie’s still alive and he's just caught up in it."
Fellow worker Rick Caldwell is a lucky man. "I heard a crack, and then it just crumbled," said Caldwell, who was about to punch in for the day. "The whole paving crew was inside ... it was so crazy."
Jacksonville Mayor John Peyton said all six garage floors collapsed. He said the city recruited search dogs from Orlando to help with rescue efforts. One hundred firefighters, rescue workers and officers arrived at the scene shortly after the 6 a.m. collapse. Leading the search effort is the Urban Search and Rescue Operation, one of the premier such teams in Florida, according to the Florida Times-Union.
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