Family and friends of José Pereira are still trying to understand his tragic death, which occurred Friday when a balcony collapsed on him while he was working on repairs at a condominium building in Sea Isle City, New Jersey.
It took rescuers several hours to cut 12 inches of reinforced concrete from the exterior wall to create an opening so they could reach Pereira. Heavy airbags were then used to lift the concrete slab until they could get it out. He was pronounced dead at 9:52 p.m. Friday, more than seven hours after the crash, police said, according to the station. NJ101.5 FM.
Pereira (43), his brother and another person were working in the south tower of Spinnaker Condominiums at 3600 Boardwalk around 2:30 pm Friday when the tragedy that left three girls orphaned occurred.
Pereira, a 43-year-old Philadelphia resident who worked for a private contractor outside the building, was on the 7th floor balcony, while his brother and the other worker were on the 8th floor balcony.
In the middle of the day, the 8th floor balcony collapsed on top of him, trapping him under thousands of pounds of rubble. Miraculously, his brother and the other worker only suffered minor injuries.
Firefighters from various departments, police, and various search and rescue teams responded to the scene and attempted to pull Pereira from the rubble.
Captain Matt Johnson of the Cape May County Urban Search and Rescue Team spoke with NBCNews about the challenges first responders faced upon arrival. “We don’t know what caused this collapse, so we have to think about the worst case scenario, preventing those other floors from collapsing. We assume that each floor weighs about 11,000 pounds. So it’s quite a bit of work to stabilize that before we can send our first responders out to perform a rescue.”
Rescuers tried to reach Pereira on Friday night, but observed significant cracks in the surrounding area and a slope towards the balcony. They then determined that the side of the building was not safe. At that time all the residents of the building were evacuated.
The salvage operation later evolved into a body recovery effort. “He was crushed by the cave-in,” said Sea Isle City Police Lt. Jim McQuillen. “We have now shifted from a rescue effort to a recovery.”