Baltimore bridge collapse: 2 victims recovered, 4 others still missing
WASHINGTON - Maryland officials say the bodies of two victims have been recovered following the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge Tuesday. Four others known to have fallen into the river are still missing.
The two men found in the river have been identified as 35-year-old Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes of Baltimore and 26-year-old Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera of Dundalk.
The recovery efforts are ongoing as dive teams search for the other four construction workers, who had been part of an eight-person crew filling potholes on the bridge in the early morning hours when it collapsed, officials say.
The Associated Press reports that a truck was recovered around 10:30 a.m. That's according to a Homeland Security memo that was described to The Associated Press by a law enforcement official. AP says the official was not authorized to discuss details of the document or the investigation and spoke to them on the condition of anonymity.
Gov. Wes Moore spoke with FOX 5 Wednesday morning to provide an update on their search for the victims and praised the first responders for their tireless work.
"The dive team is in the water right now, as we speak," he said. "These are difficult conditions. We're talking about very frigid temperatures with high winds, and extraordinary darkness and trying to navigate mangled metal."
The search and rescue mission was paused at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, about 18 hours after the collapse. It resumed at 6 a.m. Wednesday.
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"Based on the length of time that we've gone in the search, the extensive search efforts that we put into it, the water temperature at this point, we do not believe that we will find any of these individuals still alive," Coast Guard Admiral Shannon Gilreath said during an evening press conference.
The bridge went down around 1:30 a.m. after it was hit by a large shipping container. The vessel lost power and was unable to steer. The ship's crew sent out a mayday call moments before they eventually ran into a pillar of the bridge.
Shocking video showed the structure buckle and snap before sinking into the Patapsco River.
Watch: Video of Baltimore bridge coming down
First responders were able to pull two of the victims from the river almost immediately. One of those rescued was taken to Baltimore's Shock Trauma Center and has since been released. The second person declined treatment.
Officials still have not confirmed if there are any other suspected victims but did say that sonar indicated several vehicles were in the water following the collapse. Any vehicles that did plunge into the river could possibly belong to the workers.
Baltimore bridge mayday call
Moore says the mayday call sent out by the ship gave police a chance to stop more traffic from getting onto the bridge.
"When the call came in, really, the heroic effort was of the first responders. The first responders were the ones who, once that mayday call came in, were able to immediately start mobilizing, getting people off the bridge, begin to alert the workers and also making sure that they were stopping the flow of traffic that was coming," Moore said.
The governor said he spoke with the survivor who was taken to the hospital in serious condition. He has since been released and told the governor about the life-saving response from police.
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"He spoke about a police officer who was telling him ‘come off of the bridge,' and he spoke about how he was coming off of the bridge and literally, he heard a rumbling and he felt a rumbling, and he turned around and just saw the bridge collapse right behind him. So, he knows he was steps away from falling into the water," Moore said. "He was just very grateful for the quick response of those first responders."
FOX 5 asked NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy about that mayday call and if the NTSB knows if there were any other warnings, such as a horn, to issue a warning. She said that is part of the NTSB's investigation and that they hope to build out a more detailed timeline by the end of the day.
Homendy added that NTSB crews will remain on scene for five to 10 days to investigate. She says the preliminary report will be released in two to four weeks, but said the full investigation could take anywhere from 12 to 24 months to complete.