Inspection Detail

Inspection: 300028495 - A.G. Mazzocchi, Inc.

Inspection Information - Office: Parsippany Area Office

Investigation Summary

Shortly before 2:15 p.m. on January 18, 1998, between eight and ten employees were working from a tubular welded-frame scaffold at a building demolition site. The scaffold had been erected on the roof of an adjacent building that housed a retail discount store and a community college. The workers were using chipping hammers to manually demolish a 30 ft tall brick wall that was connected by a steel truss to a concrete roof. As the work continued, the wall began to move and shake before collapsing. It fell, along with the scaffold, through the roof and two floors of the building on which the scaffold had been erected. The employees, along with 17 customers in the retail store, sustained injuries. A number of the shoppers were trapped and a search was initiated for survivors that continued until 11 a.m. the next morning. Part of the roof, scaffold, and brick wall also fell through the classroom ceilings at the college, although no one was present because it was a holiday. Subsequent investigation revealed that the beams, which still had part of the concrete roof attached to them, became top-heavy and fell eastward. The beams attached to the truss kicked out the bottom of the brick wall. In addition, an excavator with a claw-like grabbing device on a long-reach arm was being used to pull the truss away from the wall, and it could not handle the top-heavy load. No specific information was provided about employees or their injuries.

Keywords: WALL, DEMOLITION, COLLAPSE, OVERLOADED, CONSTRUCTION, SCAFFOLD COLLAPSE, FALL, STRUCK BY, TUBULAR SCAFFOLD