Three people die and one is injured after 15-story building partially collapses in Houston
Three workers have been killed and another left injured after a skyscraper partially collapsed in west Houston on Monday afternoon, local officials have revealed.
The 15-story building, which was under construction, is located in the 990 block of Town and Country Boulevard, near the intersection of Interstate 10 and the Beltway.
The collapse happened shortly after 1:30pm local time. The Houston Fire Department said a newly constructed stairwell appears to have collapsed across several of the building's lower floors.
Three workers were pronounced dead at the scene. A fourth was taken to hospital in a stable condition but the current extent of their injuries is unknown.
Officials said the building itself is not in danger of collapsing, but they are worried about a secondary collapse in the stairwell.
The building, that was under construction, appears to be the in the 990 block of Town and Country Boulevard, near the intersection of Interstate 10 and the Beltway
The collapse happened shortly after 1:30pm local time. Footage captured by KTRK appeared to show that part of the second floor of the building had fallen down on the first
All 240 workers at the site have now been accounted for, according to KHOU11, meaning no further fatalities or injuries are expected.
However a rescue team is at the scene on standby to conduct a search of the wreckage to make sure nobody else is inside.
Assistant Fire Chief Ruy Lozano said the building is currently too unstable for the crew to enter.
It's unclear how long it will take to remove the bodies from the skyscraper and stabilize the structure, Lozano said.
'We’re going to take all the time necessary to ensure the safe recovery of the bodies,' Lozano told the Houston Chronicle. 'It’s a very unstable structure.'
The collapse appears to have occurred at the One MRO Project Building, which was announced earlier this year by Marathon Oil.
A worker at the scene told KTRK that he had been on the ground floor when the incident happened.
He said it appeared that several floors of a stairwell may have collapsed.
'I was on the eleventh floor [originally]. They’d just called us. They’d told us to come done and unload some materials. I went down [to the first floor].
'As soon as I got down and started unloading materials, out of nowhere I heard a loud banging sound, and it sounded like the building was collapsing ... All you see is a bunch of smoke.'
A worker at the scene told KTRK that he had been on the ground floor when the incident happened. He said it appeared that several floors of a stairwell may have collapsed
A rescue team is at the scene on standby to conduct a search of the wreckage to make sure nobody else is inside, but Assistant Fire Chief Ruy Lozano said the building's currently too unstable for them to go in
An investigation into how the stairwell collapsed is underway, officials said.
In a tweet, the Houston Fire Department confirmed they had responded to the scene.
'Houston Fire Dept. Technical Rescue Team is actively responding to a #buildingcollapse in West Houston,' the post read. 'Three confirmed fatalities, one victim transported to nearby hospital in stable condition. HFD asks for thought and prayers for the victims and their family.'
The names, ages and genders of the victims were not immediately available.
Neither local law enforcement or Marathon Oil have yet responded to a DailyMail.com request for comment.
According to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, the office building is slated to be completed in Summer 2021.
