A porch roof sits on the ground early on Tuesday afternoon (May 5) at a home on the 400 block of West Avenue. A house-lifting company worker was injured in the accident.
A worker was transported the AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center Trauma Unit early Tuesday afternoon after a porch collapsed.
The aftermath of a porch collapse that injured a house-lifting company worker on Tuesday afternoon on the 400 block of West Avenue.
The accident happened on the 400 block of West Avenue at a home where Baumgardner House Lifting was preparing to work.
Ocean City fire and police officials responded to the scene shortly after the accident occurred at about 1:15 p.m.
West Avenue was closed briefly to through traffic but is now reopened.
At the scene shortly after the collapse, Ocean City Fire Chief Chris Breunig said the victim was alive and responsive. Officials are still looking into the cause of the collapse.
The property is owned by the family of Councilman Antwan McClellan. At the scene later Tuesday, he said the family had been living at a temporary rental in a different part of town as they awaited the house-lifting, which had been scheduled to take place on Wednesday.
A neighbor who lives across the street, Diane Behounek, said she heard the loud sound but did not witness the actual collapse. She said she saw workers speaking to somebody on the ground and called 911.
Andrew Baumgardner, owner of Baumgardner House Lifting, said early Tuesday evening that the employee is home with no serious injuries after being checked at the hospital and released.
He said his company is a subcontractor on the job, hired to do the actual house lifting but not the prep work. The porch roof joists were connected to the home only by nails, he said.
Baumgardner said his employee was working to shore up the roof when it collapsed. He said the worker was not fully pinned by the fallen structure and was walking around before he was transported to the hospital.
"It could have been worse," he said.
