RICHMOND, Ky. (LEX 18) — A new construction build in Madison County, for the Madison County God’s Outreach Food Distribution Center Project, partially collapsed earlier Wednesday morning sending four employees to the hospital.
A call came around 9:43 a.m. that the structure in the 900 block of Four Mile Road in Richmond had partially collapsed. Four subcontracted employees were injured and transported for medical care. Richmond fire crews on the scene say they were working on roof trusses.
Richmond Fire Chief Sam Kirby says, "They were placing the trusses on the structure. From what I’ve...eyewitnesses on the scene, the last two that they had said collapsed in the middle and set a domino effect off and pulled the rest of them down."
While crews were alert while they were being transported to the hospital, the fire chief explains that they don’t get calls like this very often. He says that the outcome could have been deadly.
"It's always a danger, we don’t get a whole lot of calls to something like this and when it is we send the whole cavalry over,” says Kirby.
Grant's Excavation is the volunteer contracting company that's overseeing this build of God's Outreach's new distribution center. All the injured employees have been treated and released from medical care.
Tim Grant, Grant Excavating’s vice president, says, "Just be in prayer for the men that were injured and the family members and it's just our prayer for them to recover and heal."
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has been on site throughout the day and the incident is still under investigation. Kentucky's Education and Labor Cabinet says that the Department of Workplace Standards is also investigating the incident. Right now, they say the cause of the collapse is still unclear.
