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D.C. firefighters responding to building collapse; two hurt Wall collapse at Northwest D.C. hotel critically injures 2 construction workers
(about 3 hours later)
A building on Wisconsin Avenue in Northwest Washington collapsed Thursday. Three construction workers were injured, two of them critically, when a brick and concrete wall collapsed along the front of a hotel Thursday afternoon in Northwest Washington.
D.C. fire department spokesman Tim Wilson said that two people were injured when the building in the 2500 block of Wisconsin Avenue, which is not far from the U.S. Naval Observatory, caved in about noon. An investigation is underway into how the accident occurred. It happened about 12:30 p.m. at the Savoy Suites Hotel in the 2500 block of Wisconsin Avenue NW, at Calvert Street near the Russian Embassy and the U.S. Naval Observatory.
Further information was not immediately available. D.C. Fire Battalion Chief Tim Jeffrey said the eight-story hotel, which was occupied, can remain open. He said a 30-foot section of decorative brick veneer sheered off the side of the hotel next to the awning leading into the front entrance.
The hotel’s driveway was littered with bricks, and a section of a concrete transom dangled near the front sliding glass doors. Jeffrey said it was unclear whether the construction workers were wearing helmets or precisely what they were doing on the project when the wall collapsed.
The name of the construction company was not evident, and a hotel employee who was at the scene declined to comment. Names of the injured workers were not made public. The collapse triggered a large response from fire and rescue workers, including the Urban Search and Rescue vehicle. The two severely injured workers were trapped under piles of bricks but were quickly freed and taken to hospitals.
Jeffrey said that hotel guests were told to shelter in place during the rescue. Among the guests were members of a Shakespeare singing group that had been scheduled to perform Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at the National Cathedral. Thursday’s show went on, but the next two were cancelled because of the predicted snowstorm.
Will Dawes, a member of the group who lives in Oxford, England, said he was in an eighth-floor room when the collapse occurred. “I heard it and I felt it,” he said as he and other group members walked toward the cathedral, about a half-mile away. Dawes, a 36-year-old singer in the chamber music group called Stile Antico, said it sounded like a thud and that it shook his floor.