‘Hard-working, humble men with spouses and children’: What we know about Baltimore bridge collapse victims

Four of the six construction workers presumed dead after a massive container ship collided with Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge have so far been identified.

Hours after the cargo ship Dali slammed into the bridge around 1.30am ET on Tuesday, 26 March, causing its total collapse into the Patapsco River, family members named Miguel Luna and Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval as being among the workers who were on the bridge at the time disaster struck.

Officials announced the following day that they had recovered two bodies found inside a submerged vehicle, identifying them as fellow construction workers Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera.

The missing men were “hard-working, humble men,” according to a fellow employee of Brawner Builders, which had hired construction workers to refill potholes when the tragic incident occurred.

By Tuesday evening, the missing workers were presumed dead.

“The company is in mourning and it’s a terrible, unanticipated tragedy,” the company’s executive vice president told the Baltimore Banner.

After days of little success in finding the workers, the US Coast Guard said the search is shifting to a “salvage recovery operation.”

Here’s what we know about the victims of the Baltimore bridge collapse so far:

Miguel Luna

Miguel Luna was the first of six victims who went missing when the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed on Tuesday to be named.

Miguel Luna is one of the missing workers and has been presumed dead

(Supplied)

Luna is one of the men who is now presumed dead, his wife María del Carmen Castellón told NBC sister station Telemundo 44 in Spanish.

After the bridge collapsed Ms Castellón said family members like her were able to get into the restricted zone while they desperately waited to hear news of their loved ones.

“They only tell us that we have to wait, that for now, they can’t give us information,” she said earlier in the day.

“[We feel] devastated, devastated because our heart is broken because we don’t know if they’ve rescued them yet. We’re just waiting to hear any news.”

One relative of Luna’s also told Sky News they were “distraught” as they waited to hear news, and that some family members were taken to a location in Baltimore by police, where they could be with families of the other missing people.

His loved ones reportedly said he is from El Salvador and has children.

Luna was also identified by the non-profit organisation Casa, which provides services around Baltimore and other areas to immigrant communities.

“Miguel Luna, from El Salvador, left at 6:30 p.m. Monday evening for work and since, has not come home. He is a husband, a father of three, and has called Maryland his home for over 19 years,” Casa wrote in a statement.

One of Luna’s children, Marvin Luna, told The Washington Post that he knew his father was working on the Key Bridge overnight but did not know it collapsed until one of his friends called him up and said, “The bridge is … gone.”

Marvin then called his father’s phone, but there was no reply.

Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval

Another of the workers missing and presumed dead since the bridge collapse in Baltimore has been named as Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval, according to Martin Suazo, his brother.

Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval

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Martin, who lives in Honduras, told CNN that his family over in Baltimore called him to tell him that his brother was missing after the container ship crashed into the bridge.

He is originally from Azacualpa in Honduras and had been living in the United States for more than 18 years. He was married and had an 18-year-old son and a five-year-old daughter.

His brother told the outlet that Sandoval was an entrepreneur who had started his own maintenance company, venturing to the US “in search of a better life,” Martin told the outlet.

In an interview with Honduran newspaper La Prensa, Martin said in Spanish, “What we’re living is inexplicable. We wish it wasn’t real. We’re dismayed, especially the agony of not knowing when they’re going to find the body.”

“My brother was a generous man,” the brother told NPR.

He gave a lot back to his community in Honduras, Martin said. While working in the US, Sandoval sent money back to Honduras — enough to open up a hotel which provided jobs for his town, including his family. On top of this, Martin told the outlet that his brother helped those with disabilities, paid for neighbours’ medicine and doctor’s visits, and he even sponsored a youth soccer league.

One of eight siblings, the construction worker was described by another one of his brothers, Carlos Suazo Sandoval, as a “joyful person who had a vision.”

“We still have faith until this moment, God grant the miracle, it would be beautiful,” Carlos told CNN en Español on Wednesday. “We still have hope, I know that time is our worst enemy.”

The Suazo family are now focusing on having Sandoval’s body found, and if they do, they plan to repatriate the body to Honduras, Carlos said.

The Honduran Embassy told Martin Suazo that it would work with him to bring his brother’s body back to the country for funeral arrangements.

Both Sandoval and Luna were members of Casa, the organisation said in a statement: “Our hearts break knowing that Miguel and Maynor were part of the six essential workers who were on the bridge when it came tumbling down...They had a dream of a better future for themselves and their families and made the brave decision to travel to this country for a brighter future.”

“In a time when there is so much hatred against the immigrant community, we look to the story of Maynor and Miguel who built bridges to connect communities, not building walls to divide them. Today and always we honor them and their sacrifices,” the group wrote.

Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes

Two bodies have been recovered from the Patapsco River after the deadly collapse of the bridge, officials announced on Wednesday.

Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, of Baltimore was one of the men discovered by divers who spotted a submerged red pickup truck in around 25 feet of water.

Fuentes, originally from Mexico, was a construction worker, found trapped inside the vehicle alongside Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera.

The tragic announcement was made at a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, held by personnel from the US Coast Guard, the Maryland Department of Transportation and state Governor Wes Moore.

One of the victims was identified by a driver’s license in his pocket, another by a fingerprint, Colonel Roland L Butler, superintendent of the Maryland Department of State Police said.

Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera

Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, of Dundalk, Maryland, also a construction worker, was found trapped inside the submerged pickup truck alongside Fuentes, officials confirmed.

Pima Castillo, Cabrera’s sister-in-law told CNN that he had been working at Brawner Builders for at least three years and loved his job.

Cabrera, from Guatemala, was not married and did not have any children, his sister-in-law said.

The construction worker’s cousin, Marlon Castillo, also told CNN that Cabrera came to the US to follow his dream and help his mother.

“Unfortunately, he was in a place where no one imagined what was going to happen,” Marlon Castillo told the outlet.

Dorlian Cabrera

(via Facebook)

‘Hard-working, humble men’

Members of a construction crew, employed by contractor Brawner Builders, were refilling potholes when the incident occurred, officials said.

Brawner Builders employee Jesus Campos told The Baltimore Banner that all of the victims were “all hard-working, humble men.”

Those presumed deceased are from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, authorities said.

A search and rescue mission for all six missing construction workers was called off on Tuesday night by the Coast Guard after it said there was no hope of finding them alive

(via REUTERS)

Guatemala’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs previously said that among the unaccounted-for workers were two Guatemalans in a statement. One person is believed to be a 26-year-old from San Luis, Peten and another a 35-year-old from Camotan, Chiquimula; the ministry did not release their names.

The victims of the bridge collapse also include Mexican nationals, according to Rafael Laveaga, Chief of the Consular Section of Mexico’s Embassy in Washington, CNN said.

However, Mr Laveaga did not specify how many of the missing people were from Mexico. The Mexican Embassy also posted on X saying that Mexican citizens were among the workers.

Miguel Luna is a father of three

(Supplied)

Mr Campos told NBC that he had been working on the bridge only a month before this week’s tragic incident.

“It could’ve been me,” Mr Campos said. “Around a month ago I was working on the bridge… we had been moved to the day shift and they went at night.”

However, he believes that nothing could have been done to save the workers in time and evacuate them.

“It happened in the blink of an eye… It couldn’t be done,” he added.

Jeffrey Pritzker, executive vice president of Brawner Builders, told the Baltimore Banner that “the company is in mourning and it’s a terrible, unanticipated tragedy.”

The Coast Guard announced at 7.30pm on 26 March that the search had been paused, and would resume the next morning as a recovery effort with divers being used to search for bodies.

“I’d like to announce tonight that based on the length of time that we’ve gone in this search, the extensive search efforts we’ve put into it, the water temperature, that at this point we do not believe that we’re going to find any of these individuals still alive,” said Rear Admiral Shannon Gilreath.

Mr Butler said on Wednesday evening that agencies were transitioning from a “recovery mode” to “salvage recovery operation.”

In the day since the tragedy, the community has shown an outpouring of support for the loved ones of the workers. Fundraisers to support the victims’ families have so far raised more than $200,000.

A GoFundMe page, organised by the volunteer group Latino Racial Justice Circle, explained that the cash would be “distributed directly” to the “families of the victims” of the bridge collapse. The organisers paused their fundraiser to start giving the $98,000 in funds to the victims.

On 4pm on 27 March, the Baltimore City Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs set up another fundraiser, which has collected contributions from 1,529 donations totalling more than $114,000 as of Thursday afternoon.