Corrections and Clarifications: This story has been updated to reflect that the US Army Reserve was not deployed to search the area for victims of the bridge collapse.
Ten people were injured and three were taken to a hospital after a snow-covered bridge in Pittsburgh collapsed Friday morning, Pittsburgh fire officials said.
The three people taken to the hospital have injuries that are not life-threatening, Pittsburgh Fire Chief Darryl Jones told reporters on Friday. The public security department said five vehicles and a bus were on the bridge when it collapsed.
Rescue teams were being deployed to ensure no victims were trapped under the collapsed bridge. the public safety department said.
The Pittsburgh Port Authority confirmed to USA TODAY that a 60-foot city bus was on the bridge during the collapse. The bus driver and two passengers escaped without injury.
Rescuers used ropes to rappel at least 100 to 150 feet to the fallen bridge, and others formed a human chain to help rescue the bus’s occupants, Jones said.
The two-lane bridge, called the Fern Hollow Bridge, collapsed just before 7 a.m. over Fern Hollow Creek in Frick Park, police said. Frick Park closed on Friday after the collapse.
Jones said a “massive gas leak” caused by the collapse is now “under control” and gas services have been restored. A gas line was cut after informed the department of public security “a strong odor of natural gas in the area.”
Authorities have urged residents to avoid the area, and several families in the area were evacuated but have since returned to their homes surrounding the bridge, Jones said.
Pittsburgh Public Safety Photos it showed the bridge collapsed as police cars arrived and a Pittsburgh city bus sitting nearly upright on the fallen bridge.
Another image from local news station KDKA-Television showed at least four vehicles in the chasm left by the fallen bridge while another vehicle dangled near the edge.
A September 2019 inspection of the city-owned bridge showed it to be in poor condition, according to the US Department of Transportation’s National Inventory of Bridges. Sam Wasserman, a spokesman for Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, told USA. TODAY that the most recent inspection of the bridge was completed in September 2021.
ANALYSIS OF USA TODAY:More than 45,000 of America’s bridges are in ‘poor’ condition
The collapse occurred hours before President Joe Biden was scheduled to visit the city to discuss a $1 billion infrastructure bill that includes bridge maintenance. He plans to visit the site with fellow Democrats Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf, Lt. Governor John Fetterman and US Senator Bob Casey.
“I’m on site now and it’s amazing there are no fatalities,” Fetterman said in an interview with USA TODAY Network in Pennsylvania.
The lieutenant governor lives in the area and crossed the bridge the day before it collapsed.
“Pennsylvania has thousands of structurally deficient bridges, and we need to use infrastructure money to make sure this never happens again,” he added.
The state has 3,352 bridges in poor condition, according to the Federal Highway Administration, the second-most bridges in poor condition. Pennsylvania will receive nearly $2 billion from the infrastructure bill to repair its outdated and failing bridges.
Allegheny County, where Pittsburgh is located, is home to the most bridges in the state and also the poorest bridges in the state with 142 that are structurally deficient.
“I hope it’s a wake-up call to the nation that we need to make these infrastructure investments,” Fetterman said.
Police, fire and emergency medical services teams responded to the collapse, and the Red Cross has been contacted to help victims. security officials said. Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf tweeted that he is monitoring the situation.
Mayor Ed Gainey tweeted he was thankful that there were no fatalities or critical injuries and thanked the security departments for their “quick response”.
Contributors: Candy Woodall, USA TODAY Network – Pennsylvania; The Associated Press.
Contact News Now Reporter Christine Fernando at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter at @christinetfern.
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George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism