Officials and distraught loved ones say the six construction workers now presumed dead after a major bridge in Baltimore collapsed early Tuesday morning were killed by hardworking fathers from Mexico and Central American countries. They were the men of the family.
Men were repairing holes in the roadbed of the Francis Key Scott Bridge when a giant tanker crashed into the bridge just before 1:30 a.m., destroying the entire 2.6-mile bridge and everyone on board. washed away into the cold waters of the river. river below.
Two workers were rescued from the river and six others remain missing after the coast guard told reporters on Tuesday night that it did not believe it would find anyone alive and called off search and rescue operations. .
“These are fathers with families. They are people who came to earn their daily bread,” said Jesús Campos, a grieving colleague who was not on the bridge. told the Wall Street Journal About the missing men.
So far, only two of the six presumed dead have been identified: Miguel Luna and Mayor Yasir Suazo Sandoval, according to reports.
Maryland State Police officials have also warned that the driver may have been on the bridge when it collapsed into the Patapsco River, so the death toll could be higher. be. Divers will resume searching for the body at 6 a.m. Wednesday.
Officials said the six known victims all worked for Browner Builders and were originally from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico.
Maynor Suazo, 37, arrived in the United States from Honduras in 2003 and began working for a construction company last year, the newspaper reported.
His younger brother, Carlos Suazo, said his beloved was the youngest of eight children, cheerful and talkative and loved to entertain others. Suazo told the magazine that the house was full every Christmas.
“I think this is the worst information my mother has ever received,” Carlos said, showing a photo of another brother in Honduras comforting his mother. “Mainor was her baby, a spoiled child.”
The family had not yet told Maynor’s 5-year-old daughter Alexa that her father likely would not be home Tuesday night.
“She was glued to her father. He meant everything to her,” Carlos told the newspaper. “They haven’t told her anything. It’s just that her father hasn’t arrived yet.”
Everything you need to know about the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore
- The Singapore-flagged container ship Dali, which crashed into Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge and destroyed it early Tuesday morning, lost propulsion and tried to alert authorities that it was about to crash, according to reports. It is being
- According to authorities, six people are missing. Two people were pulled from the river by rescue workers.
- Seven vehicles were lost after falling off a 2.6-mile-long bridge. Authorities are using sonar technology to locate the vehicle.
- Video shows the ship’s power flashing just before the crash, then turning back on. Watch footage of the bridge collapse here.
- Baltimore residents said the terrifying collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge early Tuesday morning left them feeling like their entire house was falling on them.
- Dali was also involved in a collision in 2016 while leaving the Belgian port of Antwerp.
Follow The Post’s coverage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore.
Miguel Luna, who worked for Brauner for 14 years, was a married father of six from El Salvador.
His wife received a call at 3 a.m. from a company representative about the bridge collapse.
“All we want is for them to be found and come home with us,” Carmen Luna told this newspaper before it was announced that the six missing workers were presumed dead. Told.
Two other men, ages 26 and 35, are from Guatemala but authorities could not identify them. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the country.
Campos, who had previously worked on bridge construction for Browner Builders with some of the missing workers, was not on shift at the time of the disaster, but was among the crew members when the cargo ship struck. He said he heard that some people were sitting in the truck and were taking a break. bridge.
He said he and other Branwer employees spent much of Tuesday calling their missing colleagues. No one picked it up.
Father Ako Walker, a Catholic priest, prayed for the men during the day at a vigil attended by the families of the missing workers.
“You can see the pain etched on their faces,” Walker said.
News of the death rippled through Baltimore’s Spanish-speaking and immigrant communities.
“This catastrophe has already had a disproportionate impact on our city’s immigrant communities. For everyone who calls Baltimore home, they often toil in grueling and dangerous jobs,” said a local said Krish Omara Vignaraja, president and CEO of Global Refuge, an immigration services nonprofit.
It is unclear whether more people may have fallen into the water when the bridge collapsed.
Maryland State Police Commissioner Col. Roland Butler Jr. said there is “a good chance” other drivers were on the bridge and are also presumed dead. The Washington Post reported.
Crew members of the Sri Lanka-bound container ship said they raised the alarm after the boat lost all power as it approached the Key Bridge and was unable to shut down.
Maryland Department of Transportation officials heard the call and stopped the driver from crossing the bridge before the crash, but were unable to evacuate the workers in time. Transportation officials planned to drive onto the bridge to warn people, but the steel structure collapsed into the water within about 20 seconds, according to recordings of radio calls.
with post wire
