Nov 19, 2009 6:35 am US/Eastern
Man Rescued After Floor Collapses In South Balt.
BALTIMORE (WJZ) ―
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A man is rescued after being trapped when a floor collapsed in a South Baltimore home.
CBS
There were tense moments in South Baltimore after the roof of a rowhome collapsed, trapping a man under the debris.
Andrea Fujii reports reports with the help of several firefighters, the man was pulled to safety.
Two men were working on house renovations on the 1400-block of Cooksie Street when one worker got caught in a construction catastrophe.
It's not clear as to why the home collapsed, but rescuers say it is clear the construction worker who survived is nothing short of a miracle.
"One of the workers was successful in escaping unscathed. The other mid-way in the basement was trapped under heavy timber and debris," said Kevin Cartwright, Baltimore City Fire Department.
The roof had been taken off of the house earlier in the day. Neighbors say when it all fell, it sounded like an explosion. It landed in the basement.
Firefighters who helped save the injured man say they got him out in about an hour.
"The frustrating part was trying to calm Mark, to let him know that even though he could get out in some aspects, he could crawl through, he could do more harm to himself or endanger himself or us," said Brian Britcher, rescuer.
"As soon as he started talking to us and we started communicating with him, we knew it was a rescue, not a recovery. So that kind of got our spirits up," said John Noah, rescuer.
"We could talk to him, but we weren't able to see him right off. So we had to go in through both ends, you know, in order to locate him," said Lt. Tim Biermann, rescuer.
"As we were trying to sure up the building, he was trying to move objects around that were on top of his broken leg," said Britcher.
"We've done rescues similar to this in the past, but there was no victims or patients we had to tend to," said Darryl Robinson, rescuer.
"It went pretty quickly, quicker than I thought it would be," said Kevin Stronzykowski, rescuer.
The building has been condemned, and the injured man is still at Shock Trauma with a broken leg.
The cause of the collapse is still being investigated.
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