HOLLADAY, Utah, May 25, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — A construction crew renovating a commercial building in Holladay was briefly caught inside when the roof of the single-story building came down on them.
Kelly Bird, spokesman for the Unified Fire Authority, told reporters at the scene that the building collapse call came to dispatch a little before 4 p.m. Thursday, and crews responded to the scene, at 4890 S. Highland Drive, Holladay.
“There was some renovation going on in this structure, and there were construction crews inside doing some renovation work,” Bird said.
“Preliminarily, it sounds like they might have hit a load-bearing wall that took out the ability for the structure to support itself, and it did come down. There were construction individuals working inside.
“Some of them were involved in the collapse, but there were no serious injuries. They were all able to self-extricate, and we did not have to treat anybody.”
Any injuries were superficial, Bird said.
“I think they were more alarmed. Maybe change of underpants, those types of things.”
Bird said structural engineers were on site, determining the stability of nearby buildings, and determining what actions should be taken next.
“We’re probably going to bring in some heavy machinery to tear down the (collapsed) structure before they’re going to be able to let anybody in adjacent structures,” he said.
“We did have a very large response. We had our HAZMAT teams here. We had our heavy rescue teams here. We did bring a canine unit in searching for life,” but all had safely exited the building, Bird said. HAZMAT tests also came back clean, he said, and no leaks were found.”
Gephardt Daily will have additional information as updates are provided and a plan for safely clearing the site is determined.
