By Jim Hannah
Enquirer staff writer

Interior of the vacant auto parts building where a floor collapse injured two men Thursday. The men were razing the building to make way for widening of Ky. 17. The Enquirer/PATRICK REDDY

NICHOLSON - The dust still hadn't settled when Dave Hollon peered down a hole that had swallowed two co-workers nearly an hour earlier.

"My initial reaction was panic," Hollon said as he stared into the gaping hole. "There was no warning. The floor just went."

The two co-workers were standing on the recessed porch of a former auto parts store being demolished at Ky. 17 and Ky. 16 when the concrete floor gave way shortly before 11 a.m. Hollon said the men fell 10 feet into the basement of the vacant building.

Hollon didn't see the collapse; he was working elsewhere on the site. He talked to the victims before they were taken to area hospitals.

A helicopter took one man to University Hospital in Cincinnati while the other was taken by ambulance to St. Elizabeth Medical Center South in Edgewood. Officials didn't release their names, and their conditions were not available. They work for Countryside, a demolition and excavation company in Demossville.

The injured men told Hollon that the building's metal-framed plate-glass door fell in - then the floor went.

Hollon said the two men were conscious after they fell. They were able to walk or crawl out of the basement through a side door, where Hollon found them.

Independence Fire Chief Rick Messingschlager said that rescue workers found one worker face down in the gravel lot.

The second man, bloodied, was wandering around the demolition site.

"No one was supposed to be in that building," said Hollon, a mechanic. "I guess they didn't consider being on the porch being in the building."

Messingschlager said the floor was unstable because steel floor joists had been removed to prepare for its demolition.

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet had recently purchased the building in anticipation of widening Ky. 17 from Pelle Road to Ky. 16 next year.

Construction bids are scheduled to be let in January. However, that timetable is tentative because of the lack of a state budget, said Nancy Wood, spokeswoman for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet District 6 office serving Northern Kentucky.

She said the cabinet had never received any complaints about Countryside's safety record, and this is the second time they've contracted with the business.

Hollon said the former auto parts store was one of several buildings they had been contracted to demolish for the cabinet in southern Kenton County.

Messingschlager said the building will have to be taken down from the outside. It is too unstable for anyone to enter.

Hollon said the structure was scheduled to be knocked down anyway.

Kentucky's Labor Cabinet is investigating the collapse.

Enquirer reporter Cindy Schroeder contributed. E-mail jhannah@enquirer.com