NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Wednesday morning in Midtown Manhattan, a tower crane caught fire and collapsed into the street below. It injured at least 11 people but thankfully none of them are serious. Property damage is still being assessed.
Back in Nashville, with so many construction cranes dotting the skyline, we wanted to know if the incident caused any concerns for local experts.
"I would say, do not be alarmed," Ruth Cante, who owns The C&F Company, said.
Cante, who provides safety training to local construction companies, said this is a pretty freak occurance.
"When we talk about crane fires, they’re not common at all," Cante said.
Naturally, she's hesitant to speculate on what went wrong, but says it's a good reminder about the importance of inspections.
"Of course, we don’t have the final details," Cante said. "When we talk about safety, you know you can never have too many inspections, too many people really just looking out for the safety of the public and the workers."
OSHA, the federal agency that regulates workplace safety, requires yearly crane inspections, but construction companies are expected to do it about once a month.
"The whole point of this is, how can we prevent this from happening again?" Cante said.
Whatever the cause for the fire ends up being, she hopes the rest of the industry takes notice.
"Yes, it’s a wake up call and it’s a situation to raise awareness to all of the companies and everyone involved," Cante said.
Officials in New York City think the fire weakened the crane's cabling, which caused the collapse. There's no word yet on what caused the fire.
