Missing Baltimore construction workers were migrants from Mexico and Central America: reports

Grace Eliza Goodwin
Updated ·2 min read
15

  • Six construction workers are presumed dead after Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed.

  • They are all migrants from Central America, their coworker told The Baltimore Banner.

  • The workers are presumed dead, and recovery efforts are underway.

New information is emerging about the six construction workers who are presumed dead after Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed Tuesday morning.

The workers were all migrants from Mexico and Central America, according to reports.

Jesus Campos, who worked with the victims at contractor Brawner Builders, told The Baltimore Banner that the missing men are from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico. He said the men are in their 30s and 40s, with spouses and children, adding that they came to the US in search of a better life, the Banner reported.

"They are all hardworking, humble men," Campos, who used to work the graveyard shift on the bridge before moving to another shift, told the outlet.

The crew members had been repairing potholes on the bridge but were on a meal break, Campos told The Washington Post, when the Singapore-flagged Dali cargo ship crashed into one of the bridge's support beams, sending it crumbling into the Patapsco River.

Guatemala's Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that two of the missing workers, aged 26 and 35, were from Guatemala, according to a press release on the agency's website.

The Mexican Embassy in DC confirmed to Business Insider that two of the six missing workers are Mexican nationals and that a third was safely rescued from the wreckage.

The Honduran Embassy and the Salvadoran Embassy did not respond to BI's request for comment.

The six missing workers are presumed dead, the executive vice president of Brawner Builders, Jeffrey Pritzker, previously told Business Insider. Their bodies, and the bodies of any other motorists who were on the bridge at the time of the collapse, have not yet been found, but recovery efforts are underway.

Two people were found alive after the bridge collapse, including one Mexican national. Brawner Builders confirmed that one of them was an employee of the company.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore told the Post that he spoke to a survivor, whose experience was "pretty miraculous."

Read the original article on Business Insider