Deaths confirmed in 'mass casualty incident' at Illinois Amazon warehouse roof collapse caused by severe weather
An Amazon warehouse in Collinsville, Illinois, has collapsed.
At least 2 deaths have been confirmed.
The collapse is due to severe weather hitting the state of Illinois as well as surrounding states.
At least two workers have died after an Amazon warehouse in Edwardsville, Illinois collapsed due to severe weather, police confirm.
A wall the length of a football field and the roof above it collapsed in the warehouse at 8:33 pm.
Speaking at live press conference at 5:45 am CST, Edwardsville Police chief Michael Fillback confirmed that there have been "at least 2" deaths, 1 hospitalization, 3o workers transferred to the Pontoon Beach police station, and a number unaccounted for.
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The department describes the scene as an "active search and recovery".
Describing the warehouse, the Fillback says it is an "utter disaster" with a portion of the building "completely destroyed."
Photos taken from a drone flying above the building show emergency services working through masses of debris.
More than 11 emergency service departments from surrounding areas are attending the scene.
A few hours after the event, writing on their Facebook, the Collinsville Emergency Management Agency stated that "subjects were trapped inside" and described the event as a "mass casualty incident."
"Please be patient with us. Our fire personnel is doing everything they can to reunite everyone with their loved ones," Fillback said on KMOV-TV.
Insider spoke to a man whose brother-in-law — an Amazon worker at the Edwardsville warehouse — is currently one of those unaccounted for.
Kevin, who wishes only to go by his first name, describes rushing to the warehouse after picking up his sister and niece, and getting to the warehouse as fast as the speed-limit let him.
"When we arrived to the area, all roads leading to the location was blocked by emergency services. We sat on the highway for 3 hours waiting to get to go to the location and pick him up to take him home" he told Insider.
They then hurried to the Pontoon Beach police dept when he heard of other employees being taken there.
"We had sat here for an hour desperately calling hospitals and police departments in the area trying to locate him, then his boss had gotten a hold of my sister to tell her that he was unaccounted for.
We kept blowing his phone up hoping for a answer from him. We've called him over 100 times. No luck."
Kevin, his sister, and his neice are now waiting to hear any news.
FOX2 spoke to the stepson of an Amazon worker who was missing.
"Our mother is basically hysterical at this point, trying to find out what's going on. She's really worried. We're worried too. At this point, I'm starting to get pretty scared that he got hurt or worse." said Connor Jones.
Reuters spoke to Sarah Bierman who was waiting at the warehouse for her husband, an Amazon employee at the site.
She told a reporter that she hasn't heard from him since the collapse.
"I just heard through the news and we live in Edwardsville; we lost power. So I decided to come down here to see what was going on, and I had no idea the building looked that bad. And I'm just; I'm worried sick." she said.
The collapse is due to tornadoes and severe storms surging through five states, including Arkansas, Illinois, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Missouri.
Governor JB Pritzker of Illinois tweeted that "[his] prayers are with the people of Edwardsville tonight, and I've reached out to the mayor to provide any needed state resources."
When KMOV reached out to Amazon for comment, spokesperson Richard Rocha offered the following statement: "The safety and well-being of our employees and partners is our top priority right now. We're assessing the situation and will share additional information when it's available."
This story is developing. Please check back for updates.
Read the original article on Business Insider
