WPRO News
Six construction workers were hurt Tuesday morning as a building under construction fell over on the Bryant University campus in Smithfield.
A pile of steel I-beams and supports lay on the ground after the skeleton of a new indoor athletic center collapsed injuring several people.
A spokeswoman for the private university said workers were erecting the steel frame of a new, Indoor Practice Facility when the structure collapsed. Six workers were sent to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Rhode Island Hospital later reported the six were in good condition.
Smithfield Fire Chief Robert Seltzer says the call came in around 8:15 A.M.
“We’re not sure exactly what caused the building collapse to take place. Currently, everything’s safe at the scene,” Seltzer said. “We got everybody transported pretty quickly.”
A WPRO listener was playing tennis at Bryant when the collapsed occurred. He said he heard a loud noise of steel crashing and then a short time later emergency sirens.
“I thought maybe the crane had tipped over.”
“It was just a creaky sound, we heard a metal sound, a crunching,” said a man who witnessed the collapse did not want to give his name.
“It kept going, it seemed like there was almost like a domino effect. That’s what we felt. We felt the ground shake and everyhing, you know?” he said.
Chief Seltzer said the Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration would conduct an investigation.
“The construction just started recently, there were erecting the steel. Obviously something this morning went wrong as they were trying to continue on with their job of putting the steel up and everything collapsed,” Seltzer said.
Two hours after the collapse, Bryant University Assistant Vice President of Communications, Elizabeth O’Neil released a statement saying:
“As you have no doubt already learned, a serious construction site accident occurred this morning at the indoor practice facility, located in the back of the Bryant campus adjacent to the baseball fields.
The steel which was being erected collapsed forward, resulting in at least six injuries. Thankfully, none of these appear to be life-threatening. No Bryant students or staff were near the site.
We are cooperating fully with authorities and will advise as more facts become available to us.
This incident will have no impact on the opening of school as students return this weekend and classes begin Sept. 8”
