UPDATE: This post was updated at 11:10 p.m. with the latest information on the ongoing search for a worker trapped in the construction site collapse in Franklin County.

Emergency crews are continuing to search for a construction worker at the scene of a wall collapse at the Martin’s Famous Potato Rolls plant outside Chambersburg.

Company spokeswoman Julie Martin told PennLive the collapse occurred shortly after 2 p.m. at the site of a new building under construction at the company’s campus off Garber Lane in Guilford Township.

No information was immediately available on injuries, but the New Franklin Volunteer Fire Department posted on Facebook Tuesday afternoon that one person in the crew that was working on the building remains unaccounted for. Early dispatches also included calls for search and rescue dogs, and that painstaking work was proceeding into the night.

Martin noted that the work was moving slowly in part because of concerns that other portions of the concrete slab walls might have been destabilized by the collapse. But she said at 9 p.m. Tuesday that the operation was still being treated as a rescue effort, noting that all involved were clining to hope that the entrapped worker might be in a void within the collapse zone.

“That’s why they’re moving very meticulously and carefully as they move things, hopefully to be able to locate him,” Martin said.

The general contractor at the site is Wohlsen Construction.

Martin said all employees at the Martin’s production plant, which has not yet been physically connected to the new site, were safe and accounted for and that operations there were continuing.

According to emergency dispatches, about three 25-by 50-foot sections of concrete slab wall came down just about the time that a storm was hitting the site, though it was not immediately clear whether the incident was weather-related. Dispatch traffic suggested, however, that construction crews were working on the wall sections at the time. Each of the slab sections, individually, weigh many tons.

Martin’s broke ground late last year on the building is that company officials said will include approximately 260,000 square feet of additional production capacity and a 16,000 square foot cold dock upon completion. The company said the expansion was needed to meet increased demand for both its fresh retail and frozen international products.

Local Pa. coffee shop gives back by donating proceeds to first responders

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