At 10:40 A.M. On October 30,2004, The Top Floors of the 10-story Tropicana Parking Garage in Atlantic City, New Jersey, collapsed. The garage was currently under construction as part of "The Quarter" casino expansion project of the Tropicana Casino Hotel. Workers were finishing the 10th-floor deck when the collapse occurred. In a matter of seconds, five stories of the garage collapsed in a pancake and lean-to configuration, trapping more than 24 construction workers in the rubble. Atlantic City Fire Department (ACFD) units responded immediately from throughout the city and arrived on-scene within minutes. The firefighters immediately went to work and assisted construction workers on the scene in extricating trapped and injured workers. ACFD removed 21 workers, several in critical condition. The firefighters worked quickly and at great peril within the collapse zone; the severely damaged structure posed the risk of additional structural collapse. Fire Chief John Bereheiko and Incident Commander (IC) Deputy Chief Lewis Janes, realizing immediately that workers were likely to be entombed in the rubble, initiated a call to the New Jersey State Police and requested that New Jersey Task Force 1 (NJ-TF1), the state's urban search and rescue task force, be activated (see "New Jersey USAR Program" on page 90).
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