FireDOC Search

Author
U.S. Fire Administration
Title
Urban Search and Rescue in the Crested Butte, Colorado, State Bank Following an Explosion/Collapse.
Coporate
U.S. Fire Administration, Washington, DC
Report
FA-120, November 1992, 25 p.
Contract
EMW-91-C-3679
Keywords
fire investigations | rescue | explosions | building collapse | death | injuries | void spaces | banks (buildings)
Abstract
On Tuesday, March 6, 1990, at approximately 8:55 a.m., there was an explosion and subsequent collapse of the Crested Butte StateBank (CBSB), 405 Sixth Street, Crested Butte, Colorado, which killed three bank employees and injuried fourteen other people. The magnitude of the explosion leveled most of the two-story brick structure, trapping some of the victims in void spaces throughout the rubble. The force of the blast blew the doors from the bank vault and embedded a metal window frame from the bank into the wall of a wooden building 40 to 50 feet away. A heavy winter snow storm complicated rescue operations and medical transportation of the injured.