SMITHFIELD, R.I. ― An athletic building under construction at a private university collapsed Tuesday, injuring six construction workers and leaving crumpled steel strewn across the site.
Workers were installing steel beams on a new indoor practice facility for Bryant University in Smithfield around 8:15 a.m. when the beams collapsed, university spokeswoman Elizabeth O’Neil said.
The six men are in good condition at Rhode Island Hospital, hospital spokeswoman Beth Bailey said.
Smithfield Fire Chief Robert Seltzer said the men were in various locations — on top of the structure, inside or working in cranes to move steel around — when the steel collapsed.
“Something went wrong, but we don’t know what,” he said.
None of the men became trapped in the steel or had to be extricated, he said. Some construction workers and emergency personnel milled about the site Tuesday morning, though most were inside a nearby trailer discussing the accident.
Only part of the structure had been erected. Its center beam rested among a pile of smaller steel beams, with construction equipment pinned underneath.
