developers investigate second crane URGENT checks were being carried out today on a second crane at the site of yesterday’s drama.A tower crane buckled and crashed into the apartment blocks at 24 and 26 Cornhill, in Liverpool’s Baltic Triangle, late yesterday morning.
The crane driver flung from his cab onto the five-storey building suffered head, leg and chest injuries. He is still being treated at the Royal Liverpool Hospital where he is understood to be in a stable condition.
A spokesman for developers Bowmer & Kirkland, whose Crane 2a collapsed yesterday, said: “As a precaution Tower Crane 1 is being examined by an independent engineer, to ensure it remains in a safe condition.”
Meanwhile search and rescue teams are scouring the rubble beneath the crushed buildings to double check no one is trapped after the crane’s five tonne counter balance smashed its way to the sub-basement.
Gold commander and the fire service’s area manager Dan Stephens said his teams would continue to comb the site as a precaution until he was sure everyone is accounted for.
He said because flats in the Baltic Triangle are privately-owned there was no way of knowing who was inside.
Asked how long the floor-by-floor search could take, Mr Stephens told the ECHO: “It’s impossible to tell given the number of floors and given the fact that they are privately owned.
“The fire service operation will continue until we are satisfied that there are no persons trapped.
“The concerns we have are that there are people under the rubble.”
More than 20 people spent last night in hotels or with friends after being evacuated from their homes.
Now blocks 31 and 33 are also being emptied on the advice of Honeybourne Kenny chartered surveyors.
Residents have a 5pm evacuation deadline as emergency crews fear the entire development could be unsafe.
A Health and Safety Executive investigation has been launched into yesterday’s incident – the twelfth involving cranes in three years.
THE ECHO