KANSAS CITY, Mo. — More details have been released following a scary scene in Westport on Wednesday night when a Kansas City, Missouri, Fire Department truck and an SUV collided, crashing into the venue formerly known as The Riot Room, near Westport Road and Broadway Boulevard.
On Thursday, emergency crews recovered the body a woman who was walking on the street, caught in that collision as it pushed onto the sidewalk.
That recovery brings the number of people killed in the crash to three, including the driver and passenger in the SUV. The firefighters in the truck were not reported to have injuries.
The southbound lanes of Broadway Boulevard were still blocked near Westport Road on Thursday as debris was still at risk of tumbling out of the building’s open walls.
Witnesses said the extent of the damage is shocking given that the crash happened about a city block away.
In the daylight Thursday, construction equipment could be seen scooping debris beneath the exposed office space. People watching called the damage unbelievable.
“That doesn’t look like a car accident at all. It looks like maybe like a gas explosion or something like that,” Miguel Abaunza said, looking at the clean-up effort.
“We heard a big boom. We thought it was an explosion,” Brady Hannah, who works across the street, said.
“I mean it seems like they knocked out that center beam, but I don’t know if that should have knocked out the whole front face of a building, you know? But it’s a firetruck so who knows?” Hannah said.
Kansas City Fire Chief Donna Lake said they are cooperating fully with the ongoing Kansas City police investigation. While declining to share details about the crash or its immediate aftermath, Lake said their truck had lights and sirens on and was headed northbound before the collision.
Police said the driver of the Honda SUV was headed westbound on Westport Road when the crash happened.
“Last night was just a tragic collision that happened. Like I said, our thoughts are with those families,” Lake said.
“It must have been going really fast,” Hannah said. “I saw that there was a tree, one tree knocked down, a second one uprooted and two light poles gone. I don’t know what they were doing on that side of the road but they were definitely going really fast and that’s the main question I have is who’s going to be held accountable?”
Officials have not yet released the names of the three people killed in this crash.