A collapse Tuesday morning at the old Rocky Mountain News building at 400 West Colfax Avenue trapped a demolition worker briefly.
The accident happened at about 8:15 a.m., while crews were demolishing the building a block west of the Denver Mint. A crane was working to bring down a section of the third floor when a large chunk fell.
"Construction workers were knocking down concrete when a larger-than-expected piece fell," said Lt. Phil Champagne of the Denver Fire Department. "The piece then hit the floor. The concrete was so heavy it collapsed the first floor and landed in the basement. A worker who was hosing down the area with water, who was standing on the first floor, fell into the basement when the concrete broke through."
The unidentified worker fell about 10 feet and was trapped by the 18-square foot concrete slab and other debris.
Denver firefighters worked for about 10 minutes to lift the slab and extricate the man from the rubble. He was taken to Denver Health Medical Center. Remarkably, he only had minor injuries and no broken bones. He was treated and released from the hospital Tuesday afternoon, 7NEWS reported.
The man works for Colorado Cleanup Corporation. His name has not been released.
The Occupational Health and Safety Administration is investigating the workplace accident. OSHA said the Colorado Cleanup Corporation has been cited six times since 1992 but that's not an abnormally high number.
The building, which used to house the Rocky Mountain News Company, is being demolished so that a new building can be erected. The new $378 million Denver Detention Center will house a justice center and a jail and is expected to be complete in 2009.
Office workers across the street from the demolition project told 7NEWS that the site look like an accident waiting to happen. They said that the demolition worker appeared to be too close to falling debris.
""For the past several days as you watched them work there he's hosing to keep the dust down, of course, but he's standing so close to where the building as their dismantling it is falling down. And he is, I mean, a hard hat is not going to do you too much good," said Ray Dobrowski.
The fact that the worker had only minor injuries surprises Dobrowski.
"That absolutely amazes me. He's a very lucky guy," Dobrowski said.
