Sixteen construction workers were injured Friday morning, three of them critically, when a freshly laid slab of concrete collapsed onto the 23rd floor of an Arlington office building. Three workers were trapped for several hours before being rescued by firefighters.
It sounded “like a bomb,” said Marlo Rodriguez, 25, a construction worker who was on the 20th floor of the building, located at 19th and North Lynn Streets in Arlington, at the time of the collapse. “Everybody yelled, ‘Get out!’ ”
The collapse occurred around 8:30 a.m., said Capt. Tom Polera, a spokesman for the Arlington County Fire Department. Workers had poured a 60-by-30 slab of concrete at about 6 a.m. and the scaffolding holding it gave way under the weight of the concrete, Polera said. County officials were working with officials from Occupational Safety and Health Administration to determine the exact cause of the collapse.
Those injured were taken to George Washington Hospital, Virginia Hospital Center and INOVA Fairfax Hospital following the incident. Three were listed in critical condition, four in serious condition and nine had minor injuries. One firefighter also sustained minor back injuries.
There were about 200 construction workers in the building at the time.
Friday was scheduled to be the final day for laying concrete, and workers were supposed to have “topping off” party to celebrate finishing the top floor of the office building, said Brian Abt, commercial division president for Bethesda-based Clark Construction, the prime contractor on the project.
Instead, all 200 workers were evacuated and later sent home for the day.
“All I heard was [people yelling] ‘problem’ and then there were a whole lot of us running down the stairs,” said J.D., a 24-year-old construction worker who declined to give his last name. “The next thing I knew they said the floor was collapsing. … All the construction sites I’ve been to and I’ve never seen [something] like this before.”
The building is part of a mixed-use project called The Waterview from Bethesda-based developer The JBG Companies. The complex, scheduled for a summer 2007 completion, includes the 24-story office tower, a second 29-story tower with condominiums and a Palomar Hotel from San Francisco-based Kimpton Hotels. The office tower has already been leased by the Corporate Executive Board, and the condos were scheduled to go on the market next month.
JBG declined to say whether the accident would push back the completion or leasing dates.
“This just happened this morning,” said Kathleen Webb, a principal with JBG. “We’re really dealing with injured people and their families right now.”
