ORLANDO, Fla. _ Two workers died early Wednesday morning after they fell when scaffolding gave way on a construction site near Walt Disney World, Orange County Fire Rescue said.
The accident occurred in the 14900 block of Chelonia Parkway, according to fire-rescue spokesman Mike Jachles. Several workers were on a support structure on the seventh floor of a hotel construction project and were pouring concrete when it collapsed, Orange County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Ingrid Tejada-Monforte said.
Two men, both in their early 30s, died on the scene. Their identities have not been released.
The fatal accident was at the building site of a JW Marriott Hotel at Bonnet Creek and not on Disney property. The hotel is slated to be complete by 2019, Tejada-Monforte said.
Marriott International did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A third worker hung on and climbed to safety, fire rescue said. He sustained minor injuries but was not hospitalized. Jachles said there were reports of a fourth worker on the scaffold, but he was not hurt.
Jachles said about 18 workers were at the scene when the accident was called in at 4:15 a.m.
Officials have not revealed a reason why the scaffolding gave way, or if the workers were wearing harnesses. The Orange County Sheriff's Office and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) will investigate the incident.
Several family members of the victims were at the scene on Wednesday morning, awaiting updates from authorities.
Joe Colon, a 42-year-old iron welder employed at the site, got to work an hour late on Wednesday morning to find the street had been blocked off and he couldn't access the site.
"I'm just thinking of where it could've collapsed, what part," Colon said. "OSHA's there every day, they go around taking pictures, that's why I don't get it.... I wonder if I knew them."
Tejada-Monforte did not say when construction work was expected to resume at the site.
