Stairwell crumples, killing 3, injuring 1
Fear of new collapse stalls recovery of bodies at future Marathon tower
Three workers are dead and one is injured after a stairwell collapsed at the future headquarters of Marathon Oil.
The interior stairwell failed at 1:32 p.m. Monday at the 15-story tower under construction on Town & Country Boulevard, near the City Centre mixed-use development, according to the Houston Fire Department.
The three workers were killed in the collapse; one injured worker was rescued and taken to the hospital in stable condition, HFD confirmed.
At a 5 p.m. news conference, HFD Asst. Chief Ruy Lozano provided details.
He said the incident occurred in the scissor stairwell around the building’s 13th/14th floors. The stairwell crumpled, falling “pancake-style,” bringing the stairwells and landings below down with it, trapping the bodies of the three workers in the rubble. The collapsed staircases could be seen laying in heaps from outside the building.
Lozano said firefighters were concerned about potential secondary collapses around the stairwell.
“Currently, there is no body recovery in process,” he said.
Building engineers from the construction company and the city of Houston were evaluating the building and working to make
sure it was fully stabilized, he said, explaining that recovering the bodies of the three construction workers killed in the collapse could take “hours to days.”
The Houston Fire Department Rescue Teamwas on site andworking with an engineer.
“We’re going to take all the time necessary to ensure the safe recovery of the bodies,” Lozano said. “It’s a very unstable structure.”
All 240 workers on the site have been accounted for, officials said.
Hines is the development manager of the future Marathon site. Harvey Builders is the general contractor. According to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, the office building is scheduled to be completed in summer 2021.
Houston-based Harvey Builders is one of the city’s largest private companies. It had $1.4 billion in revenue last year, according to a 2020 Chronicle survey.
In a statement, the company said it is investigating the collapse with Hines, the fire department, and its subcontractor East Texas Precast.
“Construction is an inherently dangerous activity and in recognition of this Harvey and its subcontractors observe very strict protocols on every project,” the company said. “Our thoughts and deepest sympathies are with each of the families involved during this difficult time.”
The company, which was founded in 1957 and has additional offices in Austin, San Antonio and Washington, D.C., has 800 employees, including some 565 in Houston.
Harvey Builders has two serious construction violations under contest from 2019 in Austin, over material handling equipment and fall protection. The company also had a settled violation from 2017 in Georgia, over hazard communication, according to Occupational Safety and Health Administration records.
The Marathon building sits just off the southeast intersection of Interstate 10 and Beltway 8 next to an apartment complex and near CityCentre, an upscale complex of office towers, restaurants and shops.
At The Tasting Room, Leslie Carlson was ordering DietCokes with her brother and nephew. They live nearby, and had originally driven over when they saw news helicopters flying overhead, Carlson said.
Over the past year, they have watched the building rise from the grassy plot that previously held several office buildings owned by Marathon Oil. She had admired the building’s distinctive design, a boxy mixture of concrete and glass.
“They put it up fast,” she said. “It was a neat design.”