WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) – A five-story building collapsed at a Washington D.C. construction site leaving several people injured Thursday.
Rescue crews worked for over an hour, using chainsaws and manual tools, to free one man who was trapped under three floors of rubble, according to DC Fire Chief John Donnelly.
Donnelly said the man, who had only eight inches of space around him, was “very lucky.”
Video from the scene showed responders bringing him out on a sled; he was conscious when they took him to a waiting ambulance.
“It was what we call a pancake collapse,” Donnelly said. “The layers came down together. There was also something called a lean-to collapse in part of it where one end is lower than the other and it’s supported against the building next door.”
The unidentified man was taken to the hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.
All of the people injured in the collapse were construction workers, according to WDVM.
Four other workers were also hurt when the structure, located on the city’s northwest side, collapsed around 3:30 p.m. Donnelly said they weren’t trapped under debris and were already being rescued by co-workers when fire and EMS arrived.
The workers were rushed to area hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries.
When asked if the high winds buffeting the city Thursday could have played a role in the collapse, officials said it was too early to say.
The cause of the collapse was still under investigation Thursday.
