Crane company cites ‘unknown structural failure’ for Boise hangar’s collapse

Below is the latest information we have on the building under construction that collapsed Wednesday at the Boise Airport.

Three people died at the scene, the Boise Fire Department said Wednesday night. Nine more were injured. Of those, five were in critical condition. The Ada County Coroner’s Office is expected to identify the three people who died once their families have been notified. The city says it won’t provide updates on the injured.

The structure and a crane collapsed adjacent to the Jackson Jet Center, according to Boise Fire. The hangar construction site is on Boise Airport’s property near Rickenbacker and Luke streets. The hangar was being built for the Jackson Jet Center.

An “incredibly large” number of emergency responders assisted during the incident, including units from all over the Treasure Valley, Boise Fire Division Chief of Operations Aaron Hummel said in a news release Thursday. The Boise Airport wasn’t affected.

“Yesterday’s tragic news of the hangar collapse was absolutely heartbreaking for our airport team and for our community,” Boise Airport Director Rebecca Hupp said in the news release. “Today we are thinking about the families that lost loved ones, our neighbors at Jackson Jet Center, and their contractor. Life is precious and every day is a gift.”

Here’s our story on Jackson Jet Center’s original plans for the building.

Here’s our story from Wednesday night on what Boise Fire says happened at the site.

And here’s a story on the wind in the area Wednesday.

Crane company cites ‘structural failure’

Inland Crane, a Boise-based crane servicer, was hired to help construct the hangar beginning Monday, according to a press release from Vice President Jeremy Haener. Four of the company’s cranes were used at the site to start with, and with the work largely completed by Wednesday afternoon, only one crane remained at the time of the accident, the statement said.

“At the time of the accident, the final crane was in service to place an end truss,” Haener wrote. “When the building collapsed due to an unknown structural failure, the crane boom — the hydraulic arm of the equipment — snapped on impact.”

Officials are still investigating the cause of the accident. Haener said neither the crane operator nor any members of the Inland team were injured.

“Based on accounts of Inland Crane operators, construction workers on site and the steel erecting contractor, we believe that no action by Inland Crane operators or the crane itself were cause for the structural failure of the hangar,” Haener said.

Haener said the company was “shocked and deeply saddened by the tragic incident.”

General contractor has history of safety violations

Big D Builders is listed as the hangar project’s general contractor in approved building permits on file with the city. The Meridian firm has been registered as a company in Idaho since at least 1996, filings with the Idaho secretary of state showed.

Since 2010, Big D has had more than a dozen safety violations, most of which were categorized as “serious,” on other projects throughout the Treasure Valley, according to OSHA enforcement records. The two most recent cases, in 2022 and 2023, each related to a lack of proper safety measures in place to protect workers against falls from as high as about 2½ stories.

Both projects — one in Meridian, the other in Nampa — involved insufficient worker-fall protections during “steel erection activity,” the violation records showed.

Each case was resolved. The 2022 violation, investigated after a complaint was filed, led to a negotiated $4,315 settlement. The 2023 case, which resulted from a referral, led to a $21,875 fine. The OSHA record does not indicate whether that was paid or if the company met a deadline for abatement.

Big D faced three prior serious fall-protection violations after an OSHA inspection of a construction project in Boise in 2017, the records showed. The company reached a $1,540 settlement, and the case was closed.

Ferd Smith, a project manager and estimator with Big D since 2015, according to the company website, declined to comment Thursday when reached by the Statesman on his cellphone. Company owner Dennis Durrant was unavailable, he said.

Durrant, who lists himself as owner of Big D since 1991, has maintained a contractor registration in Idaho for the company since 2005, according to records of the Idaho Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing. He has no past disciplinary actions against his registration, which is current and doesn’t expire until September.

Big D also operates in Arizona, Nevada, Oregon and Washington, according to the company’s website. There is no record of any safety violations for the company in those states, OSHA records showed.

Boise’s building division had “no concerns or issues” with the hangar during recent inspections, according to a news release from the fire department.

Photos show destruction at construction site

Visual journalist Darin Oswald went to the building collapse site Thursday morning. His photos below show what occurred:

And here’s what the site looked like before the collapse:

How much wind was there before the collapse?

There were some notable wind gusts around Boise around the same time as the building collapse, which was reported to Boise Fire around 5 p.m.

Boise Fire Operations Chief Aaron Hummel said late Wednesday that officials were unsure what caused the incident but that a crane also collapsed on site.

Hummel said the crane was placing “structural members” at the construction site, which was set to be a hangar built by private charter-flight service Jackson Jet Center.

Data from the National Weather Service in Boise shows that from around 4:30 to 5:30 p.m., sustained winds at the airport sat at 14-17 mph. A wind gust of 20 mph was also recorded at 4:50 p.m., about 10 minutes before emergency services were called.

According to guidelines issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, wind speeds of 20 mph or more are when construction sites should begin exercising caution.

“When wind speed (sustained or gusts) exceeds 20 mph at the personnel platform,” the OSHA recommendation reads, “a qualified person must determine if, in light of the wind conditions, it is not safe to lift personnel. If it is not, the lifting operation must not begin (or, if already in progress, must be terminated).”

How long might the investigation take?

Hummel said Wednesday that Boise police were leading the investigation into the catastrophic collapse at the construction site, and that an OSHA investigator was already on hand. The investigation was handed off to OSHA as of Thursday afternoon, according to a news release from the Boise Fire Department.

OSHA investigations of job sites where there have been injuries or fatalities can take up to six months to complete, Jose Carnevali, a U.S. Department of Labor regional spokesperson, previously told the Idaho Statesman. OSHA is part of the department.

On Thursday, Carnevali acknowledged a Statesman request for details about the investigation process and planned to respond later in the day.

How common are workplace deaths in Idaho?

The Idaho Department of Labor recently reported that there were 39 work fatalities in the state in 2022. Eight of those were in the construction industry.

Workplace deaths have been trending down since topping 60 in 1996, according to a Department of Labor chart. However, the 2022 number was a significant increase over the 30 deaths in 2021.

The most common locations for workplace deaths were farms and streets/highways. Transportation incidents accounted for 14 deaths.

Gov. Brad Little ‘monitoring the situation’

Idaho Gov. Brad Little posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, about the building collapse.

“Please keep the victims of the tragic building collapse near the Boise airport in your prayers,” Little posted at 7:06 a.m. Thursday. “We are also praying for the loved ones of those who died. The state is monitoring the situation to find out how we can assist.”

Boise Mayor Lauren McLean thanked first responders in a news release for their “quick, compassionate and professional actions.”

“Our community is facing a profound loss after the hangar collapse last night. Our thoughts are with the families who lost loved ones and those who are awaiting news on those still in critical conditions,” McLean said.

Idaho Statesman reporters Nick Rosenberger, Sally Krutzig and Shaun Goodwin contributed.