Phoenix warehouse crews locate body of missing man 3 days after roof collapse

PHOENIX – Authorities believe they have located the body of a warehouse worker who was missing for three days after a storm caused a roof collapse at a large commercial building in Phoenix earlier this week.

Firefighters began a search and rescue operation for the man after a microburst hit around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday and lifted the roof off of Freeport Logistics in west Phoenix, according to Phoenix Fire Department spokesperson Capt. Todd Keller. Around 1 p.m. Saturday, crews found the body of the man near the center of the building where initial reports state he was last seen, Keller said.

The body is believed to be 22-year-old Oswaldo Montoya, according to Keller. The man's death is being investigated by the Phoenix Police Department, which will work with the Maricopa County Medical Examiner to confirm the victim's identity.

"Oswaldo was a hard worker. He was working a night shift, just supporting his family (and) taking care of his loved ones," Keller said at a news conference outside the scene of the collapsed building on Saturday. "This is not the outcome we wanted."

Keller said the family of the victim had been at the scene and had been notified of the victim's death. Those who knew him said he was a "great" dad, brother, son and son-in-law.

Crews searched the scene for three days and brought a drone and rescue dogs to try to locate the worker. New crews entered the search site every 12 hours, according to Keller.

Tens of thousands of concrete, debris removed

The roof collapse was catastrophic, said Keller. "These were racks of products 40 feet tall. When the roof blew off, all those racks collapsed and it kind of corkscrewed and piled down," Keller said.

On Friday, nearly 50,000 pounds of concrete and debris were removed as crews primarily focused search efforts on the center and north side of the building.

"We had to obviously use heavy equipment. The complexities of an incident like this is such a large scale," Keller added. "We have cranes, we have Bobcats with grappling attachments, we used every resource we have. We have completely exhausted all of our resources in the fire department."

The site was considered a high risk for rescuers, according to Keller, who said crews had worked carefully and diligently in the dangerous environment. Structural engineers also worked with search crews as authorities feared a possible secondary collapse.

Contributing: Emily DeLetter, USA TODAY