Parking garage deck collapses in Atlanta

ATLANTA – Part of a six-floor parking deck near downtown Atlanta collapsed during the lunch hour Monday, crushing at least 35 cars. Late in the day, there were no reports of injuries, but crews were stabilizing the building so firefighters could search car by car to make sure.

The deck “pancaked” from the fourth floor to the first level. More than 50 firefighters rushed to the scene around 12:30 p.m. and the bottom level was a “huge mess of vehicles and concrete,” said Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran.

“We’re hoping with all our hearts that we don’t find any people inside,” Cochran said at a news conference.

What caused the 7-year-old structure to collapse was not immediately known. Hardin Construction, the general contractor on the deck, was one of three companies that was working at the Atlanta Botanical Garden when a pedestrian bridge collapsed in December, killing one worker and injuring 18.

The search of the parking deck was delayed when engineers spotted signs of bolts popping on the other side of the deck, said J.P. Spillane, an Atlanta police official. Welders entered to shore up the area and a new truckload of timbers arrived about 11 p.m. Search dogs were to ready to sniff through the rubble once the building was secure.

“We want to be absolutely sure the building is safe and there is no secondary collapse,” Cochran said.

Hardin Construction spokeswoman Barkley Russell confirmed the company was the general contractor on the deck and surrounding office complex. She said the majority of the deck work was done by subcontractor Metromont Corp., based in Greenville, S.C.

There are 1,415 spaces and about 35 were affected, Russell said in a statement.