'I could feel the ground shake': Garage partially collapses at Jacksonville hospital

After a search by officers, drones and K-9s, Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Chief Keith Powers said there was likely no one trapped in a parking garage that partially collapsed Tuesday at Ascension St. Vincent’s Riverside Hospital.

Powers said he was “pretty confident” but cannot be sure until structural engineers evaluate the integrity of the building and searchers are able to get “actual eyes” on each of the 111 vehicles.

“A couple of vehicles are mashed pretty flat,” he said.

The collapse, which happened just after noon, occurred on the third level of a garage adjoining the hospital’s Chartrand Building, across King Street from the emergency room, hospital officials said.

Multiple fire trucks, ambulances and other emergency vehicles staged outside the hospital’s emergency room entrance. The ER remained open, but patients requiring care were routed through the Dillon Building, the hospital said.

Ascension spokesman Gary Nevolis thanked the Sheriff’s Office and Fire and Rescue for their “immediate response.” The health system is investigating what happened, along with local authorities, he said.

Aerial video footage shared by TV news stations showed a corner section on the garage’s top level caved in. At least three vehicles on the top level had fallen into a lower level. Another vehicle’s passenger-side tires appeared to be on the edge of the collapse.

Mayor Donna Deegan said she was grateful that preliminary reports showed that, despite the potential for injury and death, “everybody so far is OK.”

The collapse, which spanned the width of about three parking spaces, occurred about a car length away from where the garage connects to the Chartrand Building.

No one knows yet what caused the collapse, other than it was “some kind of structural failure,” Powers said.

He credited searchers for their “heroic efforts” in what was a life-threatening mission.

“That’s a pretty unstable parking garage,” he said.

The initial police call came in at 12:14 p.m. Responding officers first evacuated anyone who was in the garage stairwells at the time, said Jaime Eason, Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office patrol chief. Once the fire department arrived, police provided security for the search effort, she said.

Another parking garage collapse, the Berkman Plaza II

In December 2007, another parking garage being built beside the 18-story Berkman Plaza II condo tower in downtown Jacksonville collapsed, killing construction worker Willie Edwards III and injuring 23 others.

Sheriff T.K. Waters said when he heard of Tuesday's situation, he immediately thought of the Berkman. He was in the Sheriff's Office headquarters when the Berkman building collapsed.

“You never know what to expect. You don’t know if there are people inside the garage, you don’t know if there are people inside their cars,” he said after Tuesday's news briefing. "When police arrived and were able to assess the situation and determine it appeared everyone had gotten out safe, “it was a big sigh of relief.”

Asked to compare the two, Powers said the Berkman collapse was “much larger and catastrophic.”

Residents share images, news of Ascension St. Vincent's building collapse

But the Riverside scare was unnerving enough.

“I was terrified,” said Jeffery Whitmore, who was checking in for a doctor’s appointment in the building. “I heard a loud boom and the building shook. I looked out and saw the parking garage had collapsed ... and we started to evacuate the building.”

In a video posted on Facebook, nearby resident Jessica Leigh Walton said it happened at the garage at the end of King Street, not the main ones on Riverside Avenue.

“I was sitting in my house and I could feel the ground shake,” she said.

An evacuation was underway, she said, and she was passing out water to people who needed to take medication or were dehydrated in the heat.

“A lot of people are distressed,” Walton said. “People are trying to comfort each other.”

She noted that the incident occurred the day after the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The timing, she said, made people nervous.

“You can just imagine … there is an emotional feel, what the hell is going on,” she said.

She had no idea how many people might have been in the garage at the time, although rescue crews could be seen preparing a stretcher.

Walton noted that water had to be pumped out of the garage during the most recent hurricane that passed Jacksonville.

“The ground over here is pretty low,” she said.

What's next after St. Vincent's garage collapse?

Surrounding streets will reopen, except for in the immediate area of the collapse, the stretch of King Street at St. Johns Avenue, Eason said. But adjacent buildings will be temporarily condemned until structural engineers can evaluate their safety, Powers said.

Nevolis said the hospital will know more once the investigation is further along.

Waters said the owners of those 111 vehicles, even the ones that may not be damaged, may have to wait some time to get them or their belongings back due to the structure being unsound.

Miami-Dade County: JFRD helping search at Surfside condo collapse with 80 first responders and gear

A permit for the construction of the three-story, $3.3 million reinforced concrete garage was issued in August 2005. Atlanta-based Batson-Cook Construction, which has an office in Jacksonville, oversaw construction of the garage, according to the permit.

The Riverside hospital started as a 200-bed hospital in 1928 and today is a sprawling 528-bed medical complex that covers two blocks between Stockton and King streets and many doctors' offices and four parking garages. The campus also includes St. Catherine Laboure Manor, a 240-bed nursing facility.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Parking garage partially collapses at Jacksonville hospital