Two feared dead, six construction workers buried after Baltimore bridge collapse
On March 26, fathers Miguel Luna, 49, and Maynar Suazo, 37, were working the graveyard shift on the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland, when about 1:30 a.m., a cargo ship rammed into one of its support beams.
As the bridge crumbled, it tossed six men – two were rescued from the team of eight – into their watery graveyard of the Patapsco River.
“We have a broken heart,” cried Luna’s wife, the mother of his three children. Keep reading to learn more about the two men whose lives were claimed by the same bridge they were trying to fix.
Miguel Luna, 49, was proud to be part of the crew working on Maryland’s iconic Francis Scott Key Bridge. Over the past several years, he shared many social media photos of his construction work on the bridge, thankful for the opportunity to provide for his wife and three children.
But since the early morning hours of March 26, Luna’s loved ones are among the six families who are praying for a miracle.
“They only tell us that we have to wait, that for now they can’t give us information,” Luna’s wife, Maria del Carmen Castellón, told Telemundo 44.
His heartbroken wife adds: “[We feel] devastated, devastated because we have a broken heart, because we don’t know if they’ve already rescued them. We’re waiting to hear some news.”
Maynor Suazo
Less than one year ago, Maynor Suazo’s mother, Yesica, gushed over her son in a Facebook post.
“Today I want to thank God first and my family, especially Maynor Suazo,” she captions a post, which shows her son at college graduation. “Today my son is a professional. the wait for this title was long as we faced many adversity, as first was the pandemic, hurricanes, floods, illness, human losses. but so far God has been good.”
And now, the heartbroken mother is grieving the likely death of her son, with no body to bury.
Suazo, 37, of Azacualpa, Santa Barbara, is the second worker presumed dead.
The Honduran man, a father of two, had been living in the United States for the past 18 years, and his brother Martin told local news that his brother emigrated in order to “improve the quality of his life.”
Martin said that he plans to travel to the United States to repatriate his brother’s remains.
In a separate interview with CNN, Martin confirmed that Suazo is survived by his son, 18, and daughter, five.
A family friend shares a heartfelt tribute for the man, writing: “Maynor is a guy, with warmth and quality of people, entrepreneur with a vision and mission to serve our community.”
The post continues: “We wish with our hearts this alive, Our prayers to see you again and continue to enjoy your joy and enthusiasm.”
‘Heroes’
The crew was fixing potholes on the steel-arched bridge – named after Francis Scott Key, who wrote the words of “The Star-Spangled Banner” – that opened in 1977.
It was about 1:30 a.m., when, according to Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a 300-meter-long ship, the Dali, appeared to strike a main concrete pier, which rests on soil underwater and is part of the foundation.
The collision caused the collapse of the bridge and tossed the eight men into the frigid, dark waters below, triggering a desperate rescue effort through the “increasingly treacherous conditions” in “darkened, wreckage-strewn waters.”
“By being able to stop cars from coming over the bridge, these people are heroes. They saved lives last night,” Moore said, adding the bridge was up to code with no known structural issues.
Two of the eight men were rescued, six are still missing.
Those missing include a 26-year-old originally from San Luis, Petén and a 35-year-old from Camotán, Chiquimula. They have not yet been named.
Search and recovery efforts are ongoing.
Our thoughts go out to the families of these victims and we hope they find some peace in knowing they are hailed heroes.
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