Could the tower crane whose mast section snapped off and crashed into an office building in St. Petersburg, Florida, during Hurricane Milton have been better secured? Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said he doesn’t think regulations are needed to prevent similar accidents, adding that the crane should have been “dismantled.”
But a city official had said there was not enough time to do so.
The crane was being used at the Residences at 400 Central project in downtown St. Petersburg. The pole, attached to the frame of the apartment building, failed near the top level. The building is designed to be 515 feet when completed. General contractor Suffolk Construction Co. is scheduled to complete the project next year for owner Red Apple Real Estate.
The pole crushed a corner of the office building in front of the project site and the boom landed in the street. No injuries were reported.
In a statement to television station Spectrum News, the crane’s owner, Boston-based Liberty Companies, said the crane was operating at 550 feet and that at that height it was “designed to withstand wind gusts of more than 140 mph.”
“However,” the statement continued, “like all structures, swirling and vertical hurricane winds can exert unique pressure on a crane.”
An independent inspector had certified the crane as safe to operate following Hurricane Helene, which had hit a week earlier, the company added.
The boom of the crane blocking the street was the backdrop for DeSantis’ press conference the next day.
He told reporters he didn’t think new crane regulations were needed. “I think the question is, ‘Should there be more regulation or should it?’ [there just be] more common sense,” DeSantis said. “I mean, do we have to regulate everything? I think most people lower the cranes.”
Another perspective of what happened came a day later.
Con Tire, an official with the city of St. Petersburg, said at a press conference on October 12 that “we actually issued an order, I think it was Saturday, to try to remove those upper sections of the mast from the tower crane . that was attached to the building frame, and we found that there was not enough time. They would have to find a crew, they were not available.”
Another insight came from Tim Lawler, a St. Petersburg resident. He told television station WFLA that “we had been given a warning, certain blocks that were within reach of the crane [to] ‘Be careful, and/or basically evacuate. Because it could happen’”.
