(RepublicanPress.org) – Safety concerns weigh heavily on the American public in the wake of the tragic collapse of a Florida condominium in Surfside, Florida, which killed 98 people in July. Another frightening collapse happened recently, but on a much smaller scale.
On Tuesday, September 14, a stairwell in a more than 100-year-old historic building in Atoka, Oklahoma, collapsed while internationally renowned country singer Reba McEntire toured the facility for an unspecified future project. Firefighters had to evacuate the singer, her life partner Rex Linn and others from the building who were stranded after the stairs collapsed.
REBA RESCUED: Country singer Reba McEntire was helped down from a historic building after a staircase collapse on Tuesday in Atoka, Oklahoma. McEntire and her partner Rex Linn were touring the building when the stairs collapsed, leaving them stranded on the second floor. pic.twitter.com/l47m7fhhHj
— CBS News (@CBSNews) September 15, 2021
Coby Scherrill spoke with local news outlet KXII about the incident. He accompanied McEntire and Linn during their visit to the building. Scherrill said the stairwell appeared weak to them. However, they had no idea how bad it was until they heard a crash and saw it falling shortly after several people had walked downstairs.
“It was pretty scary,” he said, adding they were initially concerned about the safety of the people downstairs.
The local emergency management director confirmed the stairs connecting the second and third floors collapsed and crashed into the landing between the first and second floors, trapping people above the first level of the building.
While my team and I were in Atoka, OK yesterday checking out an old historical building, a staircase collapsed. Thankfully, no one was seriously injured. We were safely evacuated from the building thanks to the quick response from the Atoka fire and police departments.
— Reba McEntire (@reba) September 15, 2021
Emergency medical technicians also checked out McEntire for injuries but gave the 66-year-old singer a clean bill of health. One unnamed individual was taken to a local hospital with minor injuries.
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