ROCKVILLE, Md (AP) -- Rescue crews on Saturday found the body of a construction worker who was missing since the collapse of a seven-story parking garage that killed two others.
The workers were killed when the floors of the unfinished garage crashed down Friday afternoon. Another was hospitalized in critical condition, but Montgomery County fire spokesman Pete Piringer said the worker's condition had stabilized.
The body of Jose Ramirez, of Raleigh, N.C., was found shortly after 3 p.m., said county police spokesman Derek Baliles. He was part of a work team on a 15-day assignment from North Carolina.
The body was taken to the State Medical Examiner's Office in Baltimore.
``It appears the entire building came down upon him,'' said Tom Carr, county assistant fire chief. ``The thought would be he was killed on impact.''
Carl Gene Fisher, of Wadesboro, N.C., and Hubaldo Medina Andrade, of Chapel Hill, N.C., also were killed in the collapse. Fifteen workers were in the garage when it fell.
Crews spent Saturday gingerly lifting away concrete slabs before the body was discovered. They had searched through the night in pouring rain, using cameras on long, snaking cables to peer into dark crevices in the rubble.
The worker was believed to have been between the fourth and fifth floors, Piringer said.
The cause of the collapse was still unclear Saturday. Just before the floors fell, workers heard a popping noise but no explosion, Piringer said. ``It was just a bang or a pop, and then the floors collapsed,'' he said. Cables secured one concrete wall that remained standing.
Inspectors from Maryland Occupational Safety and Health and the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration were on the scene.
Stanley Manvell, vice president of safety for James G. Davis Construction, the contractor on the site, said workers had been placing prefabricated concrete sections for the garage and welding them to the building. Fifteen workers had been at the site.
The building, under construction for six weeks, was about two-thirds finished.
