By Steven Yablonski, Ivan Taylor, Manuel Bojorquez
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MIAMI (WFOR) — Four people in Brickell escaped serious injuries on Monday morning after an 85-foot drilling rig collapsed and crushed vehicles and a construction container, Miami officials said.
Miami Fire-Rescue officials said that first responders raced to the area of Brickell Bay Drive and Southeast 12th Street in Brickell just after 8 a.m. after getting word of a drilling rig collapse with people trapped.
When crews arrived, they said they found that the drilling rig fell onto Brickell Bay Drive, crushing three vehicles, including one that was on fire, and a construction container, trapping workers inside.
Fire officials said that the Miami Technical Rescue Team immediately began a “complex rescue operation” to save those who were trapped, including by using hydraulic cutting tools to get to the two workers who were trapped in the crushed metal.
While that rescue was taking place, first responders were also working to extinguish a fire that broke out in a white SUV when it was hit by the collapsing rig, as well as conduct a search inside to make sure no one was trapped or injured.
That vehicle was determined to be clear.
“A female driver was headed south on Brickell Bay Drive, saw the crane collapsing right in front of her, and was able to pull her car in reverse just slightly enough to be able to get out of the vehicle,” City of Miami Fire-Rescue Chief Robert Hevia said in a news conference. “The vehicle also caught on fire when the crane landed on the car.”
Two unoccupied vehicles parked in the northbound and southbound lanes of the road were also struck by the collapsing drilling rig.
Fire officials said the driver who was able to escape the vehicle is lucky to be alive.
“Count your blessings, God was watching over you today,” Hevia continued. “Because, you know, to be able to see the crane falling, pull the car in reverse and pop out of the back while the car was on fire is really incredible. Today is a new birthday for her.”
The operator of the drilling rig was also injured after jumping from the rig and falling onto the ground when it began to collapse.
Video posted by Only in Dade showed rescuers pulling trapped workers from the wreckage. In one moment, a worker could be seen hugging a rescuer after being pulled from the machinery.
In total, four people were injured and were reported to be in stable condition at local hospitals.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was contacted and also responded to the scene to conduct an investigation.
Fire officials said that Miami-Dade County Unsafe Structures personnel also responded because the incident occurred within a Rapid Transit Zone and involved an ongoing project under their jurisdiction.
A Miami Fire-Rescue unit remained on scene to monitor and control a fuel spill and prevent further spread until a specialized mitigation crew arrived.
Fifty firefighters responded to the incident to aid in the rescue operations.
Residents express concern over construction safety Hours after the collapse, residents who spoke with CBS News Miami expressed relief that no one was killed but said the accident was especially troubling because it follows another construction-related incident in Brickell just last month.
“It was kind of scary, obviously very scary,” said David Freed, a real estate agent who has lived in the area for six years.
Freed said the amount of construction taking place in such a concentrated area has made accidents a growing concern.
“14 brand-new constructions is happening in less than a one-square-mile [area], so it’s something bound to happen,” Freed said.
Brandon Johnson, a former construction worker, said safety should always be the priority on a job site.
“Safety should have been the number one factor, and obviously it wasn’t,” Johnson said.
Still, considering the size of the rig and the damage caused by its collapse, Johnson said the outcome could have been far worse.
“That’s what we call a close miss,” he said.
Christina Lardon lives nearby and said she had just returned home from a trip to the store.
“I was accessing my parking garage just before 8 am and I heard a tremendous boom,” she said.
She ran outside to see the SUV on fire.
“I think we were all in shock and awe just staring at the scene, and thank God that we weren’t there a couple of minutes prior,” she said.
For some Brickell residents, Monday’s collapse brought back memories of another construction accident just weeks earlier.
“It makes you think twice when you see a construction site, big cranes — the second one that falls,” said Brickell Bay resident Andri Iglesias.
Iglesias was referring to a tower crane that collapsed into a swimming pool at a Brickell apartment building last month. No one was injured in that incident.
The two incidents have heightened concerns among some residents living amid the neighborhood’s ongoing construction boom.
The site’s real estate developer’s statement about the collapse The construction site was building the new global headquarters for billionaire Ken Griffin’s hedge fund, Citadel.
A spokesperson for the site’s real estate developer, Related Companies, issued a statement, which reads in part: “Our number one priority is the health and safety of our workers and the community. We are working in full cooperation with City and County building departments to secure the site and conduct a full investigation of today’s incident.”
The investigation into the incident remains ongoing.
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