EMMETT TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) - Six workers were injured Friday when a scaffold collapsed outside a hotel construction site in west Michigan.
Strong winds were believed to have caused the scaffold to topple outside the nearly complete four-story building in Calhoun County’s Emmett Township.
The injured construction workers were taken to hospitals for treatment.
“We had a couple that had broken extremities and dislocations, some open injuries,” Emmett Public Safety Director Mike Olson told the Battle Creek Enquirer. “It was rather chaotic initially because of the number of injuries.”
The workers were trapped beneath the fallen scaffold for a time, according to WWMT-TV.
“When we got here, they were inside the structure, but it’s our belief that they fell outside,” Olson said. The workers were taken out of the building on stretchers.
Michigan’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has been notified and the accident was under investigation.
Township officials approved plans for the hotel in 2009. It is expected to open this spring.
Emmett Township is just southeast of Battle Creek.
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