Trusses fall like dominoes
ADAMS TWP — Three workers were seriously injured Wednesday evening when roof trusses collapsed on them at the construction site of an indoor sports complex off Brickyard Road.
The men, whose names were unavailable, were taken by ambulance to Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh for treatment.
Chief Al Minjock of the Adams Area Fire District said two of the men were conscious and the third was semi-conscious while emergency crews extricated them from the wreckage.
The injured men were part of a construction crew assembling the building at the Brickyard Park Plaza.
Authorities are investigating the cause of the accident, which occurred about 5 p.m.
“We don't know why yet,” Minjock said.
He said the men were struck multiple times by the falling wood, causing injuries to their chests and extremities.
“It's like a domino effect,” Minjock said. “When one goes down, they all go down.”
Amanda Maynard, 15, whose mother owns the day care service in the adjacent strip mall, witnessed the collapse.
She was struck by the deafening sound.
“It was like a firework going off beside me,” Maynard said.
She also compared the collapse to falling dominoes.“There was a lot of people yelling,” Maynard said.Initially, the teen was scared her cousin or family friends, who all were working at the job site, were injured.While that turned out to not be the case, she was still impacted by witnessing the accident.Maynard said the workers just started doing the roof Wednesday.Minjock closed down the construction site until the Occupational Safety and Health Administration can inspect the building to determine a cause.The Callery and Cranberry Township volunteer fire departments as well as Quality Emergency Medical Services and Cranberry Ambulance assisted Adams firefighters at the scene.About 30 firefighters responded to the scene. Crews returned to their stations at 7:34 p.m.
