Six people were taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries after a floor collapsed Saturday at a wedding venue in Tamworth, New Hampshire.
The collapse occurred about 4:30 p.m. while a wedding party of up to 140 people were present, according to a joint release from the Tamworth Fire/Rescue Department and the New Hampshire State Fire Marshal’s Office. The office confirmed there were no fatalities and that four of those being treated at the hospital had already been released.
A phone call to the venue, the Preserve at Chocorua, was not answered.
Tamworth, a town of about 2,800 people, is around 115 miles (185 kilometers) north of Concord, New Hampshire, near the western border of Maine. Phone calls to the MaineHealth Memorial Hospital went unanswered Saturday night too.
The Fire Marshal’s Office said that while more than 100 people gathered in a building called the Sap House at the venue, the floor buckled, creating a 20-foot by 20-foot opening and sending about 70 people into the basement. Several people were trapped by the fallen beams and by farm equipment that had been stored on the lower floor.
The buckled floor that collapsed, sending nearly 70 wedding guests into the basement of a building (New Hampshire State Fire Marshal’s Office via AP)
An office spokesperson said late Saturday that before first responders arrived, other guests and staff helped some of the people who had fallen climb out of the basement with the aid of ladders, and were rendering first aid to people with minor injuries. It was unclear how many people were treated at the scene, and investigators are still determining the extent of injuries.
A photo from the Fire Marshal’s Office shows a chandelier and white bunting decorating the ceiling above the buckled floor boards, as well as stacked benches that had been used for seating for the wedding before the collapse.
The Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating the collapse along with the Tamworth Fire/Rescue Department, a spokesperson said Saturday. Investigators believe the building “was over capacity” prior to the floor collapse, a spokesperson said in a release.
A first responder who arrived on scene shortly after 911 calls came in described half the floor of the building where the wedding ceremony was set to take place as having fallen into the basement over scanner traffic listened to on Broadcastify. He asked for more first responders to talk to witnesses, saying there were about 145 people present at the event. The responder also said they were carefully pulling people out of the building basement.
