American authorities announced that they recovered the remains of two people who were killed after the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore collapsed, Tuesday, following the impact of a cargo boat. Four other people, still missing, are presumed dead.
The victims were construction workers who were on the bridge to plug holes when the Dali ship hit the bridge pier.
Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, who was from Mexico and lived in Baltimore, and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, who was from Guatemala and lived in Dundalk, Maryland, were identified as the men recover from the water Wednesday morning. Both their families have been notified, said Colonel Roland L. Butler Jr. of the Maryland State Police, quoted by NBC News.
The victims were in a red van that fell into the water and got stuck at a depth of more than 7.5 meters near what was once the middle of the bridge, the colonel said.
Sonar vehicle scans lead officials to believe there are more vehicles still underwater, but they are stuck in concrete and structures that collapsed Tuesday morning.
After the collapse of the bridge, two people were rescued from the water, one of whom was admitted to a local trauma center in serious condition.
All six people believed to have died in the bridge collapse are believed to be from Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.
THE INVESTIGATION COULD LAST TWO YEARS
The Dali ship lost power, and a call for help from the crew allowed the authorities to close the bridge to traffic. Video footage of the ship, emergency radio transmissions and analysis by maritime experts paint a picture of a disastrous scenario, one that could have been much worse.
The chair of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), Jennifer Homendy, told NBC News on Wednesday that the agency has recovered data from the onboard recorder (black box) of the Dali ship.
More than 1,100 engineering, construction, contracting and operations specialists from the Baltimore District of the Army Corps of Engineers are providing support to local, state and federal agencies following the bridge collapse. The Army Corps is helping to clear the canal where the bridge collapsed as part of the recovery effort to remove debris from the water.
Homendy said he had “no doubt” that the investigation into what happened could be completed within “12 to 24 months”. She said it was a “massive job,” but said such an investigation was nothing new for the NTSB.
Right now, Homendy said, the focus is on reuniting families with loved ones. “Everything else can wait,” she said.
56 DANGEROUS CONTAINERS
The NTSB says 56 containers of hazardous materials were on a cargo boat.
The containers, which contained 760 tons of hazardous materials, according to Homendy, carried mainly corrosive, flammable substances and “miscellaneous” materials, including lithium-ion batteries.
Some containers were cracked, Homendy said, adding that a sheen could be seen on the waterway.
Homendy also said that some of the cracked containers are in the water and others are on the ship, and that he does not know the total number of cracked containers or the timetable for their removal, as that is not the responsibility of the NTSB. She added that it’s a “pretty dangerous situation” that prevents officials from getting to the hazardous materials to assess what’s left.
Homendy specified that 23 people, including 21 crew members and two pilots, were on board the Dali ship at the time it hit the bridge.
The crew remains on board the vessel, which the NTSB investigative team boarded on Wednesday as part of its investigation. The people on the ship have electricity, Homendy said, but the ship cannot move.
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