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:: Sunday, July 25, 2004 ::

Condo collapse death toll at 2 South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Macs Construction has been slapped with 14 safety violations, with fines totaling $12,250, in the last two years, according to OSHA.

The violations were spread among sites and were for faulty construction practices including problems with scaffolding, concrete, masonry and stairways as well as for excessive noise and poor air quality.

Of the 14 violations, 12 were labeled 'serious' by OSHA because they posed a 'substantial probability of a serious injury occurring,' said Powell McDonald, the federal agency's Fort Lauderdale-based assistant area director.

McDonald said he couldn't characterize whether 14 violations in two years is higher than normal. But Ron Hyman, president of Sunland Homes development and former head of the Gold Coast Builders Association, said repeat violators are rare.

'Most of us have never been cited at all,' he said.

Collapse toll at two Palm Beach Post, FL
They were among 13 workers pouring and smoothing concrete for what was supposed to be the second-floor walls and third-story floor of the nine-unit building, one of four under construction at the site.

Three others were seriously hurt when the building suddenly collapsed on the south end, sending the rest of the walls tumbling like dominoes.

'I need fire, ambulance. I need the whole damn kit 'n' caboodle,' Bob Hill told 911 dispatchers when he called at 6:17 p.m. Thursday.

'Had a cave-in of concrete. I have several men down. Some of them pinned, some of them pinned under concrete,' said Hill, a manager for the project's development company, Allied Capital Development of Palm Beach Gardens.

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