Baltimore bridge collapse: Father of two among victims

• By George Wright & Bernd Debusmann Jr
• BBC News

Updated 7 hours ago

The bodies of two men have been recovered, and four others are presumed dead, after a container ship hit Baltimore’s iconic Francis Scott Key Bridge early on Tuesday.

The US Coast Guard said it will suspend its massive search and rescue effort, as divers are no longer able to navigate the waters safely because of concrete and debris found in the river.

But officials have pledged to find the bodies of the men for their relatives.

The men are believed to be members of a pothole-repair crew who were working on the bridge and are citizens of Latin American countries.

Four of the six victims have been named so far.

The two bodies were recovered inside a vehicle, Colonel Roland Butler of the Maryland State Police said at a press conference on Wednesday. They were identified as Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26. Mr Fuentes is originally from Mexico and Mr Cabrera is from Guatemala.

Little information has been released about the others’ identities, but here’s what we know so far:

The six workers were citizens of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

One of the missing workers from El Salvador was identified as Miguel Luna by the non-profit organization Casa, which provides services to the immigrant community in Baltimore, as well as by the country’s foreign minister.

“He is a husband, a father of three, and has called Maryland his home for over 19 years,” Casa executive director Gustavo Torres said in a statement.

Marvin Luna, son of Miguel Luna, told the Washington Post that he knew his father was on the bridge overnight but did not know it had collapsed until friends called him and said: “The bridge is gone.”

Honduras’s migrant protection service has identified a second victim as Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval.

El Heraldo, a Honduran newspaper, has reported that he was from Santa Barbara department in the country’s west.

Mr Sandoval’s brother told NBC News that the family was informed of his disappearance just hours after the bridge collapsed in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

“The hope we have is to be able to see the body,” Carlos Suazo Sandoval was quoted as saying. “We want to see him, find him, know whether he is dead, because we don’t know anything.”

Maynor Sandoval had lived in the US for the past 18 years and was married with two children, a five-year-old daughter and an 18-year-old son, his brother told US media.

His brother described him as a very hard working man who had moved to the US in search for a better life for his family and who dreams of opening a small business. He had also donated money to a children’s football league in Honduras that allowed kids to play, Carlos added.

Some of his family members paid tribute to him on social media as news emerged that he was among the missing.

“I can’t believe this Maynor, that Friday would be the last time I saw you,” one woman wrote in Spanish on Facebook. “I will always remember you.”

Guatemala’s foreign affairs ministry has also confirmed that two of the workers were Guatemalan nationals, from the regions of Petén and Chiquimula, but has not yet named them. One of them is now known to be Mr Cabrera, whose body was recovered from the water on Wednesday.

On Wednesday, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador confirmed that two of the missing are Mexican nationals – one is Mr Fuentes, whose body was also recovered.

A third Mexican national was rescued, Mr López Obrador added.

Officials said two people were rescued from the water on Tuesday, one of whom was sent to hospital and was later released.

Mr López Obrador declined to give further details, noting that relatives had asked officials to keep their information private. Mexico’s foreign ministry has only shared that the two missing are from the states of Michoacán and Veracruz.

The six men were employed by Brawner Builders, a local contractor that carries out maintenance work on bridges in Maryland state.

Jesus Campos, who has worked on the bridge for the company and knows members of the crew, said he was told they were on a break and some were sitting in their trucks.

“I know that a month ago, I was there, and I know what it feels like when the trailers pass,” Mr Campos told the Associated Press.

“Imagine knowing that is falling. It is so hard. One would not know what to do.”

“They were wonderful family people,” Jeffrey Pritzker, executive vice president of Brawner Builders, told the New York Times, adding that the six men had “spouses, children”.

“It’s just a very, very bad day.”

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