Editor’s Note: Monday, April 24 was the 35th anniversary of the L’Ambiance Plaza building collapse, which took the lives of 28 construction workers in 1987,at the tower site across from the St. Augustine Cathedral campus in Bridgeport.
In a recent Mass honoring deceased priest and bishops of the diocese, Msgr. William Scheyd provided this recollection of the Most Rev. Walter W. Curtis, Second Bishop of Bridgeport, who lived immediately across the street from the disaster site. “Bishop Curtis was among the first to be on the scene of the disaster, and he immediately began ministering to workers and families. He also stood beside the family of the last victim at 1:30 a.m. when the body was recovered later in the week. Throughout the long search and rescue process he inspired many as he stood outside praying the rosary each night in the chilly sprint weather. He was a priest and a bishop of great kindness, goodness and compassion.”
BRIDGEPORT—It’s probably safe to say that if you were in or around Bridgeport on Thursday, April 23, 1987, at 1:36 pm, you remember where and when you were when you first heard of the L’Ambiance Plaza collapse, the worst construction accident in Connecticut’s history, instantly claiming the lives of 28 workers.
For thousands living, working and going to school within a half-mile radius of the lift-slab collapse, the news was announced by the shaking of ground followed by the rumble of huge prestressed concrete slabs pancaking on top of one another.
Then there was silence, a “deafening silence,” as recalled by the Rev. Michael A. Boccaccio who, in 1987, was assigned to St. Augustine’s Cathedral, which became a source of comfort to the scores of people left adrift by the loss. The cathedral, and its school, Kolbe Cathedral High, were less than 200 yards from the disaster and its acres of twisted beams and broken concrete.
It was in Kolbe’s gymnasium where scores of family members waited, hoping against hope in the days that followed that their husbands and fathers would somehow be found alive. They were being counseled by social workers and clergy of all faiths. But there was no good news to be had; all 28 had died within a second or two.
“When a deceased worker was found, the silence was tangible, deafening, and I dare say it was almost beautiful to see everyone coming together in that moment of sadness,” Boccaccio said. “We was so taken by this experience, my respect for civil servants was multiplied by one million.”
He was speaking at the 30th anniversary ceremony of the L’Ambiance collapse, the worst construction accident in Connecticut’s history. Speaker after speaker reminded the audience, gathered around the south steps of City Hall, that the cause of safety in the workplace is one that requires constant vigilance.
“We all know where we were on that day, and families had just celebrated Easter, a celebration of renewal, and when that building collapsed, their world collapsed as well,” said U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal. “There are still workplaces just as dangerous. I’ll be going back to Washington today to consider a budget submitted by the president that would cut workplace safety enforcement by more than twenty percent.”
The senator read from a letter from a construction worker who was at the site on that fateful day. “He wrote: ‘I served in Korea. In combat you know that there’s a chance you might not go home. That shouldn’t happen when you go to work.’”
Connecticut AFL-CIO President Lori Pelletier agreed. “Every sixteen hours, a worker dies on the job,” she said.
It was easily the largest turnout that the annual remembrance has seen in years. Last year about 40 turned out for the 29th anniversary observance. Monday’s gathering saw about five times that number. The fickle weather of spring has sent many of these ceremonies inside City Council chambers, but Monday’s weather cooperated; it was seasonably cool without wind nor rain.
“The pain never quite goes away,” said Paula Gill, of Somers, who with a quivering voice spoke in honor of her father, Richard McGill, who died in the collapse. “It was a terrible day, but one thing my father taught us was to do what you love and I’m sure if he had to do it all over again, he would have done the same thing.”
Gill was accompanied at the lectern by her sister, Patty Charette, of Ellington; both were little girls when their father died.
Another child left fatherless in attendance Monday was Anna Maria Andarowski of Torrington who was 11 when her dad, Angelantonio Perugini, died. Now, one of her daughters is that age.
“There was the call—someone from the worksite called,” she said. “Then I heard my mom scream. My brother wasn’t there — I ran to the neighbors to get help.”
One of those credited by emcee Thomas A. Wilkinson, president of Local 371, Fairfield County Chapter of the United Food & Commercial Workers International Union, was Michael J. Daly, editorial page editor of the Connecticut Post. Daly received a plaque from the local for his many columns over the years that laid the blame on the disaster on corporate greed, as well as describing the outpouring humanity in the ensuing hours, days and weeks.
Mayor Joseph Ganim told the group thanked the building trade unions.
“We can never forget,” he said. “The world stopped that day — people put their lives back together bu the loss is still there.”
Former Mayor Tom Bucci, mayor at the time of the tragedy , also thanked the building trade unions for organizing the event as well as Frank Carroll, the retired international vice president with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, for his “tireless” help in the weeks that followed the collapse.
“People from every economic strata turned out to help,” Bucci said. “It was a tragic day, but out of that tragedy, it was the human spirit that triumphed.”
