BREAKING NEWS: Three people have died and one is injured after a 15-story building partially collapses in Houston
- The 15-story under construction building partially collapsed at around 1:30pm
Three people have been killed and another person injured after building partially collapsed in west Houston on Monday, local officials have revealed.
The 15-story 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 Click2Houston appeared to show that part of the second floor of the building had fallen down on the first.
The Houston Fire Department said a newly constructed stairwell appears to have collapsed across several floors. Officials said the building itself is not in danger of collapsing, but they are worried about a secondary collapse in the stairwell.
Three people 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.
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.
A rescue team is at the scene 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.
It’s not known if those who died were construction workers. All 240 workers at the site have been accounted, according to KHOU11.
The collapse appears to have occured at the One MRO Project Building, that 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.
‘Out of nowhere, I hear a loud banging sound,’ the worker told the network.
‘It sounded like a building was collapsing, which, I checked out, it didn’t happen, but all I saw was the parking building … we’re very close to the parking building. 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
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.’
Neither local law enforcement or Marathon Oil have yet responded to a DailyMail.com request for comment.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates…