Effort launched to recover workers killed in collapse
Process expected to be ‘slow’ as officials plan safety investigation at Marathon construction site
A deadly construction collapse inside a sleek newoffice tower being built in west Houston sent ripples through the building industry as first responders and construction officials began to orchestrate a complex recovery effort and investigation to determine what went wrong.
“We’re still looking at a slow, methodical process,” Houston Fire Department Executive Assistant Chief Justin Wells said Tuesday as rescue crews worked on a plan to remove the bodies of the three construction workers who died Monday at the future headquarters ofMarathon Oil Corp.
The building’s 15-story interior precast stairwell— a “scissor” stairwell with a set of two interlocking stairways providing two separate paths of egress located within one enclosure — failed, collapsing on itself and crushing the three workers and injuring another.
The Houston Fire Department said Tuesday night that two structural engineers and 60 workers were on the scene to help with recovery. “Riggers are preparing to lift portions of the collapse, although recovery efforts will be paused this evening,” according to a release. The collapse was isolated to one interior stairwell, HFD said, “and the structural integrity of the building is intact.”
The collapse sent a shock
throughout the construction industry where Marathon Oil’s contractor D.E. Harvey Builders is widely regarded as a company with extremely high safety standards.
“Everybody throughout the commercial construction industry knows their work … you have to meet stringent safety requirements to get on their job sites” said Kim Mason, senior director of safety services with the Houston chapter of Associated General Contractors, a not-for-profit group that provides training and other resources to local construction companies.
Onlookers peered through the fence shielding the construction site after the Monday afternoon incident andone left a bouquet of white daisies.
Marathon Oil released a statement expressing its sympathies and offering assistance to the building contractors. The Houston-based energy company has been planning to move into the new building in the 900 block of Town& Country Boulevard late next year. The property is just inside the southeast intersection of Intestate 10 and Beltway 8 near the City Centre office, retail and residential development. A Marathon Oil spokeswoman did not immediately know how its relocation plans may be affected.
HFD Assistant Chief Ruy Lozano said that several large concrete planks remained in place from the stairwell that collapsed. Firefighters planned to remove them through a hole in the 15-story building’s ceiling, then assess the debris field on the ground floor and put together a plan to retrieve theworkers’ bodies.
“We’ re hoping to accomplish that late this evening or tomorrow morning ,” he said Tuesday.
City officials had also notified the South Texas Regional Office of the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, he said.
The city has not yet released the names of the workers. Lozano said the city will release their identities after making sure all the families have been notified.
Construction workers brought the prefabricated stair sections into the building with a crane through a hole in the roof, so the plan is to enlarge the hole and use a crane to remove the debris from the vertical stairway shaft, which stretches from the first floor tothe roof past the15th floor, Wells said.
Each floor contained two sets of stairs, and some of those sets were broken into smaller pieces upon the collapse. Crews will have to reverse-engineer the stair debris before they begin extracting the bodies from the rubble, Wells said.
Marathon Oil and its builders obtained a newconstruction permit to pour the foundation/superstructure for their new office building in November 2019, city records show. They received a second permit, to build the 961,000-square-foot highrise office shell, in May.
The building had regularly scheduled inspections, and safety officials visited Friday to conduct a structural inspection, Houston Public Works spokeswoman Alanna Reed said in an email. On Monday, they visited the building before the collapse to conduct a “ceiling cover” inspection. Contractors were cleared to proceed with the building cover.
Harvey Builders, its subcontractor East Texas Precast, and Hines, the project’s development manager are working with officials to investigate the accident, according to a statement from Harvey late Monday.
“Construction is an inherently dangerous activity and in recognition of this, Harvey and its subcontractors observe very strict protocols on every project. Our thoughts and deepest sympathies are with each of the families involved during this difficult time,” the statement read.
Stan Marek, CEO of Houstonbased Marek, a more than 80-yearold specialty subcontractor for the commercial and residential industries, had two people working 6 feet away from the site where the three workers died.
“They were trying to fix a very, very heavy stairway, one of supports broke and it just pancaked,” Marek said.
Marek said he is not familiar with the subcontractor working on the stairs, East Texas Precast, but his company has worked on Harvey construction projects for decades.
“They’re probably the safest construction company in the nation,” he said, noting that other companies have adopted their stringent safety protocols over the years.
Mare kw or ker shave been providing wall, ceiling and paint work for the Marathon Oil project. He said his workers will be off the job until Harvey calls them back, which he expects to be at least a couple weeks, but may be longer.
The incident, Marek said, will just heighten the need for and the importance of safety.
“You can’t bring those lives back. But we can all learn from this,” he said.
Kendall/Heaton Associates, the building’s architecture firm, declined to comment and referred questions to Marathon Oil. Officials from the city of Houston declined a request tomake building inspectors available for an interview. OSHA representatives were not immediately available for interview.
OSHA records show that in 2019, 174 Texans died in work accidents, 25 in incidents in Houston. The records show six fatalities in Houston from Jan. 1, 2020 through March 6, 2020, though OSHA investigations can take up to six months to complete, according to the agency’s website.
Marathon Oil CEO Lee Tillman extended sympathies to the families of those affected in an internal statement to employees late Monday. He thanked first responders and the Houston Fire Department and stressed the importance of safety to his employees.
Spokeswoman Stephanie Gentry said the company has been focused on its response to Monday’s accident and that it is committed to answering the many questions it has received from workers.
The Houston-based energy company has asmany as 2,000 employees, though it has reduced its U.S. workforce in recent months as low oil prices continue to plague the industry.