/ CBS Baltimore
BALTIMORE - The search for six construction workers turned to a recovery effort Tuesday night, following a collapse at Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge. The span was struck by a cargo ship early Tuesday morning.
The six men were working for Brawner Builders, filling potholes on the center span of the bridge, at the time of the collapse.
The men, who are now presumed dead, are from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico, and were living in Dundalk and Highlandtown, according to our media partners at The Baltimore Banner. The Guatemalan Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed two of the men were from Guatemala, according to a Tuesday evening news release.
The Banner reports the men are in their 30s and 40s and have spouses and children.
"They are all hard-working, humble men," the Banner was told by an employee at the company.
The Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore collapsed early Tuesday after a support column was hit by a large container ship that had lost power, sending vehicles and people into the Patapsco River, authorities said.
Two other workers were rescued from the water. One was not hurt; the other was hospitalized but later released.
"This was so completely unforeseen," Jeffrey Pritzker, executive vice president of Brawner Builders, told The Associated Press. "We don't know what else to say. We take such great pride in safety, and we have cones and signs and lights and barriers and flaggers. But we never foresaw that the bridge would collapse."
I was raised in Ohio, but made stops in Virginia and North Carolina, before landing in Maryland.