Crane Collapses Onto Clearwater Condo Building: Reports

CLEARWATER, FL — A crane collapsed in Clearwater Tuesday morning, falling onto the Crystal Bay Condos, according to multiple reports.

The crane’s operator had to be rescued from the cab, Clearwater Fire & Rescue Department wrote in a Facebook post. There were no injuries.

The St. Petersburg fire marshal issued a non-mandatory evacuation orderfor the building’s residents, WTSP reported.

"I walked down my hallway on my balcony and saw this huge crane, and all these guys down there and all of a sudden, they're telling him to ‘stop, stop, stop,’ and the crane started lifting, and the guy is still in it, and it lifted all the way up, and he was up in the air, and it went smash, and the whole place just shook like a bomb fell or something," Kimberly Jenkins, who lives in the building, told Fox 13.

The crane company offered to reimburse anyone who lives in the building for a Tuesday night hotel stay, reports said.

After the crane fell around 9:30 a.m., crews spent four hours unsuccessfully trying to remove it using two smaller cranes, reports said. They planned to use a third, larger crane Wednesday to finish the job.

Adam Bild, attorney for the Crystal Bay Condo Association, told WFLA that the collapsed crane was still there as of noon on Wednesday.

He said the crane was being used to lift new roofing materials to the top of the building and it collapsed from the weight.

“As devastating as an event like this is, having no injuries is wonderful," Bild said. "So we're very relieved that there are no injuries, and we're excited to get the crane removed and everyone's life in the building back to normal as quickly as possible.”