A roof truss system became unstable and collapsed at a church under construction in Greer, South Carolina on Saturday, September 19, dropping two workers roughly 15 to 20 feet. Both were treated at the scene and reported in stable condition.
The Greer Fire Department responded to a reported structural collapse in the 600 block of Arlington Road, near West Wade Hampton Boulevard. The truss was being set by crane when it let go. The Greer Building and Codes Department was called in. As of September 21 the cause was undetermined and the incident remained under investigation.
No contractor, crane operator, truss supplier or owner has been named by any agency.
Why Truss Erection Is the Sharp End of Framing
Between the moment a truss leaves the crane hook and the moment permanent sheathing goes on, nothing but temporary restraint and diagonal bracing carries lateral load. A single truss is a slender element with almost no out-of-plane strength. A row of them braced only to each other can go over as a unit, which is what a truss system collapse usually looks like from the ground.
The industry guidance is SBCA’s BCSI, covering restraint and bracing for metal-plate-connected wood trusses. It separates installation restraint from permanent bracing, and the failures happen in the gap between the two, usually when the crew gets ahead of the bracing to keep the crane moving.
For reference, the fall protection trigger height in construction under 29 CFR 1926 Subpart M is six feet. This was a fall of 15 to 20.
Where the Enforcement Goes
South Carolina is a state-plan jurisdiction. Enforcement runs through SC OSHA, housed in the state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, not through federal OSHA. Employers in the state have to report a work-related in-patient hospitalization within 24 hours, and that report is the trigger for a compliance decision on whether to open an inspection.
South Carolina is also a no-fault workers’ compensation state, where temporary total disability generally replaces up to two-thirds of average weekly wage.
The distance between a small framing package and a job like the Duke Reuben-Cooke renewal, where 75 to 120 workers are on site daily under an institutional owner’s safety program, is mostly a question of who is watching the bracing while the crane waits.
A Note on Sourcing
Every fact above traces to a single originating report from WSPA 7News quoting the Greer Fire Department. A second outlet put the fall at about 20 feet rather than a range. An AI-assisted version in circulation adds speculation about whether SC OSHA will examine the contractor or the crane operator, which no agency has said. Cause is undetermined and nothing here implies fault.