Florida parking garage collapse kills 3, injures 8; one worker still listed as missing

Three people are dead following the collapse of a parking garage under construction at Miami-Dade College Wednesday.

According to an NBC News report, the third fatality was reported early this morning when a construction worker, who had been pulled from the rubble of the garage alive, succumbed to his serious injuries at a local hospital. Another worker who was found alive amid the collapsed structure remains in critical condition. One person is still listed as missing, as of the latest reports.

Another eight workers were taken to local hospitals for the treatment of injuries they suffered when a part of the five-story parking garage in Doral, Fla., suddenly began to collapse, one level falling onto another. The parking garage at the school was under construction and no students or school staff were nearby when the incident occurred.

The garage was part of a $22.5 million construction project at the school. The company in charge of its construction is Ajax Building Corp. Construction, according to the report, was nearly complete when the collapse occurred. The head of Ajax Corp. said the company was conducting an “internal” investigation to determine the cause of the collapse. Fox News reports that the first floor of the structure was to include classroom and office space for Miami-Dade College. The area surrounding the structure was already blocked from public access but was situated among other buildings on the college campus and surrounding neighborhood.

Reports indicate hundreds of rescue crews arrived on the scene of the collapsed parking garage. One fire captain told Fox that each layer of the garage began to collapse upon the one below it until it reached the ground floor of the structure.

A construction truck and crane were the only vehicles in the garage at the time of the collapse Wednesday afternoon. Fox also reports that the man who was pulled from amid the rubble early Wednesday morning was inside one of the construction vehicles when the collapse occurred. Rescue crews were able to reach the man enough to get him vital supplies while they worked through the rubble to get enough access to him to get him out of the garage. In order to do so however, the man had to have both legs amputated so he could be unpinned from the truck and rubble. He died just after 1 a.m. Wednesday, according to another report.

The rescue crews on the scene worked through the night to rescue the now-deceased construction worker and to continue the search for the one believed to be missing.