BALTIMORE – Six workers who went missing after the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed early Tuesday morning are presumed to be dead, the U.S. Coast Guard announced after a day of search and rescue efforts.
The search for six people presumed dead became a recovery effort in the wake of the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge Tuesday. Two were recovered in a red pickup truck Wednesday morning.
State Police said the search has moved to a salvage effort because officials believe vehicles are encased in the bridge debris, and divers are no longer able to operate around the debris.
The span was struck by a cargo ship shortly after it left the Port of Baltimore early Tuesday morning.
Officials say that eight people were working on the bridge at the time of the collapse. Two people were rescued from the water shortly after Tuesday’s collapse. One of the rescued workers was unhurt, the other was treated at the University of Maryland Medical Center and has been discharged.
Who were the bridge collapse victims?
The six men were working for Brawner Builders, filling potholes on the center span of the bridge, at the time of the collapse.
The men, who are now presumed dead, are from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico, and were living in Dundalk and Highlandtown, according to WJZ media partner The Baltimore Banner.
One of the missing workers from El Salvador was identified as Miguel Luna by the nonprofit organization CASA.
“He is a husband, a father of three, and has called Maryland his home for over 19 years,” CASA executive director Gustavo Torres said in a statement Tuesday night, noting Luna was a “longtime member of the CASA family.”
The Guatemalan Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed two of the men were from Guatemala, according to a Tuesday evening news release. The men are in their 30s and 40s and have spouses and children.
Maryland State Police identified two men found in a red pickup truck as Dorlian Cabrera and Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes.
CBS News spoke with a family member who said Cabrera was among the group of workers presumed dead
Honduras’ Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Antonio García told The Associated Press a Honduran citizen, Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval, was missing. García said he’d been in contact with Suazo’s family.
The Mexican Embassy in Washington said there were also Mexicans among the six.
“They are all hard-working, humble men,” the Banner was told by an employee at the company.
Recovery mission ongoing
Search and rescue operations were suspended at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday as officials transitioned to recovery efforts.
“Based on the length of time that we’ve gone in this search, the extensive search efforts that we’ve put into it, the water temperature — that at this point we do not believe that we’re going to find any of these individuals still alive,” Coast Guard Rear Admiral Shannon Gilreath said Tuesday evening.
Divers went back into the murky water Wednesday morning. The Coast Guard is leading the recovery mission.
“This was so completely unforeseen,” Jeffrey Pritzker, executive vice president of Brawner Builders, told The Associated Press. “We don’t know what else to say. We take such great pride in safety, and we have cones and signs and lights and barriers and flaggers. But we never foresaw that the bridge would collapse.”