Eyewitness reports point to over-zealous demolition prep.
A man has been critically injured when a 12-storey Miami building collapsed as it was being prepared for demolition. Police spokesman Ernesto Rodriguez said the man – Samuel Landis, 46 – was hit by a projectile from the building’s collapse. Landis is thought to be a project manager with Fort Lauderdale-based demolition contractor AlliedBean.
Albert Cabada, who owns the restoration company GC Construction, was working on the building next door and filmed the collapse. Cabada told CNN that the building was slated to be demolished in sections this week, but instead it collapsed completely. “As far as I could tell they were scrambling before the collapse to close the streets,” he said.
Cabada said that demolition workers removed large sections of structural load-bearing walls on the front of the building, a decision that caused Cabada to notify management at the site that the demolition prep concerned him. “It was poorly planned, in my opinion,” he added.
The building that collapsed was the 12-storey Marlborough House, which was approved to be demolished to make way for new condos.
