DEL.ICIO.USUpdated: 4:42 p.m. June 30, 2009
Official says weight not a factor in deck collapse
Firefighters laboring to shore up partially collapsed building
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Monday, June 29, 2009
A crane lifted mangled cars from a pile of rubble Tuesday afternoon as firefighters combed through what remains of the collapsed Midtown Atlanta parking deck.
After searching for more than 26 hours, firefighters said they are still surprised to have found no victims.
KENT D. JOHNSON / kdjohnson@ajc.com
Four stories of the Centergy Parking garage in Midtown collapsed early Monday afternoon.
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“We have no one missing, but we’ll be out here until the job is done,” Atlanta Fire spokesman Bobby Stewart said around 3 p.m. Tuesday. “We’re searching every car, every corner, every part of this garage.”
Four floors of the Centergy parking garage at Spring and Fifth streets collapsed around 12:30 p.m. Monday.
As of 3 p.m. Tuesday , firefighters found only 38 of the about 1,400 cars had been damaged in the accident, Stewart said. Cranes removed 62 of the cars from the garage.
An official with the company that built the structure said Tuesday it’s too early to speculate on a cause.
Harry Gleich, vice president of engineering for Metromont Corporation, said that an official investigation had not begun yet. Metromont is the subcontractor that built and installed the concrete structures used in construction of the deck.
Asked if the structure could have been overloaded, Gleich said, “Weight should not be an issue.”
Gleich said the forms, which he insists are used all over the U.S., were built at company facilities in Hiram, Ga., and Greenville, S.C., and shipped to the construction site.
Gleich said he was confident that the structure is sound now. Yet, firefighters said they aren’t so sure.
“It is definitely a dangerous operation,” Stewart said Tuesday afternoon.
After each car is lifted from the rubble with a crane, firefighters and structural engineers recheck the garage to make sure it is safe for firefighters to return to their search. The process is tedious, but necessary because of the questions that remain about the stability of the garage, Stewart said.
“We want to make sure all of our rescuers are safe and sound,” he said.
Firefighters and dogs then search each vehicle by hand as a precaution in case any one is still inside.
A hotline has been set up for friends and family who have not been able to contact loved ones they think were parked at the Centergy garage. That number: 404-546-2374.
The operation was initially scheduled to wrap up by 1 p.m. Tuesday. However, Stewart said the process is far more extensive then anticipated and is expected to continue throughout the night.
Fire crews initially responded with 55 firefighters. By Tuesday afternoon, 188 firefighters from across Georgia were on scene.
Despite the large numbers of personnel and temperatures above 90 degrees, firefighters reported no injuries among the crew.
“We’re working hard but we’re working safe as well,” Stewart said.
More than two dozen emergency agencies, some from as far away as Augusta, were contributing to the effort. Federal officials from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration were also on the scene.
OSHA, along with Atlanta Fire and Police, will lead the investigation once the recovery is complete.
The search was halted for about three hours Monday night because of some shifting of the deck, but resumed about 9:40 p.m., Atlanta Fire-Rescue Battalion Chief Steven Woodworth said Tuesday.
“We have secured [the shifting], and are moving forward,” Woodworth said.
“We are continuing to shore the building,” he said. “We have made tremendous progress in that area. We are also continuing the searches as we shore. We have made tremendous progress there.”
Woodworth said that the search operations had continued throughout the night using cadaver-sniffing dogs as well as “live-victim” dogs.
“We’ve had dogs run through the rubble pile twice,” he said. “At this time, we have not had any hits from the dogs. However, due to the depth of the pile, we will continue to run the dogs through.”
Crews were also using cameras mounted on long poles to look for victims, Woodworth said. “As we clear some [rubble], they’re getting the cameras down into the cars.” He said there were 80 emergency personnel working the scene.
Despite the cranes continuing to remove crumpled cars, it could take several more days before some people get their vehicles.
The 1,415- space garage serves employees of the Centergy building, RBC Bank, Georgia Tech and members of the nearby L.A. Fitness were housed in the garage when the collapse occurred.
A small section of the six-story parking deck collapsed. The overall structure is intact, as is the entrance to the deck where parking attendants work.
“There was a pancake effect all the way down to the ground floor,” Stewart said.
Stewart said the only security cameras in the parking deck were located at the entrance and exits, not near the middle section that collapsed. He was unsure when or if those videos would be released.
The parking deck was last inspected at the time it was built and cleared for occupancy in 2002, said Catherine Woodling, a spokeswoman for Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin. It has not had any code violations since, Woodling said.
The general contractor for the garage was Atlanta-based Hardin Construction, which was recently fined for the December collapse of a bridge at the Atlanta Botanical Garden that killed one person and injured 18.
A Hardin spokeswoman directed reporters to Metromont, which did the actual construction work.
Metromont CEO Rick Pennell issued a statement Tuesday.
“As has been reported, Metromont Corporation assisted Hardin Construction on this project, which was finished in 2002 and is just one of over 500 parking facilities that our 75-year-old company has helped construct. Our last direct involvement with the garage was in 2002,” he said.
Metromont also teamed with Hardin on other Atlanta projects such as the BellSouth building on Lindbergh Drive and the Piazza on Paces in Buckhead.
Metromont’s concrete products were also used in the construction of Turner Field, Philips Arena, Atlantic Station and the nearby IKEA store.
Staff writers Mike Morris, Leon Statfford and Alyse Knorr contributed to this report.
Check back with ajc.com for updates.
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