Collapse at Boise Airport Kills 3

A hangar under construction on the grounds of the airport in Boise, Idaho, collapsed Wednesday, killing three people and injuring another nine, officials said. Five of those injured in the collapse are in critical condition, the city said in a statement released Wednesday night. Authorities responded at about 5pm to a private business located at the Boise Airport for a steel-framed hangar that collapsed, Boise Fire Department Operations Chief Aaron Hummel said during an earlier news briefing. Everyone who had been at the site had been accounted for as of Wednesday evening, the AP reports.

"It was a very chaotic scene," Hummel said, describing the incident as a "large-scale collapse" of the framework of the building. "I don't know what caused it, but I can tell you it was a pretty global collapse," he said, calling it "catastrophic." Boise Airport operations were not impacted, officials said. Terra Furman was driving on Interstate 84 at about 5:30pm when she spotted at least 20 police cars, ambulances, and firetrucks about a quarter-mile from the entry to the airport. They were around what she described as a crane folded in half and a building collapsed into the shape of an 'M.' "The walls were still up at a point and the middle collapsed in on either side," she said. Authorities are investigating what caused the collapse.

(More Boise stories.)