An 85-foot construction drilling rig collapsed onto several cars in the Brickell area on Monday, sending four people to the hospital, according to Miami authorities.

The collapse of the crane-like rig happened at the construction site at 1201 Brickell Bay Dr., where work on the new global headquarters for the hedge fund Citadel began in March.

Police shut down the road from Southeast 12th to 13th streets, the department said.

Miami Fire Rescue said four people have been hospitalized in what spokesman Lt. Pete Sanchez called “a complex rescue operation.”

The rig first crushed a construction trailer with two workers inside and an unoccupied car, Sanchez said. Firefighters with the Technical Rescue Team used hydraulic cutting tools to free the workers. The car caught fire and had to be extinguished, Sanchez said.

The rig also crushed two cars parked in both the northbound and southbound lanes. Sanchez said firefighters searched both vehicles and determined they were unoccupied.

A woman driving south on Brickell Bay Drive saw the rig as it was coming down, Sanchez said. The rig hit her car as she tried to put it into reverse. The vehicle caught fire, but she was able to escape, Sanchez said.

The rig’s operator was injured when he jumped out of his seat and fell to the ground, Sanchez said.

The three construction workers were taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center and were in stable condition. Paramedics took the woman to HCA Florida Mercy Hospital. She is also in stable condition, Sanchez said.

Fifty firefighters worked the scene, Sanchez said.

A statement issued by the developer Related Companies said “a drill rig at 1201 Brickell fell over and damaged three cars and a construction shed.” The developer added that it is working with the city and county to secure the site and investigate the incident. Related Companies is developing the tower with Citadel CEO Ken Griffin.

A drill rig is a piece of equipment used to bore holes in the ground, typically for the pilings that support a building’s weight. The rig collapsed after 8 a.m. Monday, according to emergency radio traffic.

A video obtained by the Miami Herald taken just after the collapse showed vehicles caught under the machinery, as well as a trailer on the construction site that was crushed. The video, which was captured from The Mark on Brickell Bay, a nearby condo building, showed one of the cars in flames and a plume of black smoke. A later photo showed fire trucks and firefighters in the area after putting out the blaze.

Brickell resident Angela McMullin was driving with her mother after dropping her kids off at school when she saw the machinery fall onto a white car driving past the construction site. She said the woman who had been driving the car jumped out, and McMullin ran over to help her get away from the vehicle. She said she did not think anyone was in the other vehicles caught under the machinery.

McMullin said the woman who had been driving the white car was “distraught.” She said the equipment missed the woman’s body “by inches.” The woman who had been driving the white car was later taken to the hospital in an ambulance, McMullin said.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Miami-Dade Consumer and Neighborhood Protection Division’s Unsafe Structures team are investigating the incident, Sanchez said.

Monday’s incident was the second construction equipment failure in Brickell in the past two months. In August, a crane malfunctioned and fell onto a rooftop pool deck at One Plaza West Brickell. No one was injured in the August collapse.

The 54-story, multibillion-dollar Citadel office tower at 1201 Brickell Bay Dr. will be the centerpiece of Griffin’s plans to redevelop a city block between Brickell Bay Drive to Brickell Avenue. Citadel did not comment on the equipment collapse.

Companies tied to Griffin and Citadel own the entire block surrounding 1201 Brickell Bay Dr. Griffin, who is worth about $50 billion, moved to Miami from Chicago in 2022, bringing the headquarters of his hedge fund with him. He has since become active in Miami real estate development.

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