CHICAGO -- Three floors of a new Post Office building under construction southwest of the Chicago Loop collapsed Wednesday, leaving two dead and five injured.
The collapse occurred at the site of the new main Post Office for the city of Chicago. The building at this point is mostly structural steel I-beams and is not scheduled to be completed until October 1995.
One of the workers died immediately after the accident. The other died from headwounds he suffered in the accident.
Fire officials said they do not know what triggered the accident, which sent I-beams cascading down to the structure's foundation which is above railroad tracks leading to Union Station, from which Amtrak and commuter trains operate.
All traffic from Union Station was shut down for two hours while structural engineers determined whether the foundation could support the weight of the girders, which witnesses said had been twisted like spaghetti.
Witnesses said the accident occurred as a cable from a crane attached to the beams was unhooked.
Fire Department spokesman Kevin MacGreggor said one person was killed and another had to be cut from an I-beam with a torch. All workers at the scene were accounted for, MacGreggor said, adding that no one was believed trapped in the rubble.
Ten ambulances were sent to the scene and the injured were transported to three hospitals. Three of the victims were reported in serious to fair condition at Cook County Hospital with head injuries.
Police said the collapse occurred at 11:40 a.m.
'It just fell apart,' Fire Commissioner Raymond Orozco said. 'They (the injured) were up on the beams, putting the beams together. Some fell two or three stories.'
Investigators from the Occupational Health and Safety Administration were on the scene.
Chicago Building Commissioner Dan Weil said the investigation likely will focus on the bolts holding the beams together. He said since the building was a federal project, it was not subject to city building codes and the city would have no role in determining what triggered the accident.
Witnesses said the collapse sounded like the rumbling of a train.
'It was loud,' said a postal worker who was across the street at the time. 'I was heading for the door myself.'
A construction worker said the accident scared him.
'All of a sudden, I see steel coming down, girders coming down. I just started running,' he said.
