afternoon we ll have an update for you. so within the next half hour i ll get that word out through mike todd the pio for the department of safety so that you ll have that and know when we ll be able to offer something else up. i can take a few questions. sir, if there was a severe thunderstorm warning, doctor was the why was the show going on? that s an excellent question. it s the responsibility of the show to monitor the conditions. why don t know why they were going on at the time and what they knew. are these tents rated for certain weather conditions? that s what the investigation will look at. it will look at the manufacturer s specifications for the tent which will include wind loading. so ultimately you re saying it s the operator s decision whether or not to cancel the show because of weather there s
collapse that killed two people a father and his 2-year-old daughter both died when high winds and hail tore through lancaster. at least 22 people were also injured. the company that hosted last night s show announced they re canceling tonight s scheduled performance. let s go to ron allen with the very latest. reporter: good morning. now that the fog has lifted we re getting a good look at the actual disaster scene. you can see there are investigators who are still looking through the debris just a scene of destruction, the big top is a complete pancake flattened there on the fairgrounds. there is one piece still standing, but imagine the scene when there were perhaps 1 oorks00, lots of family and children in the tent. we now understand from the governor s office that the deceased were a father and young daughter. investigators are trying to understand how this could have happened. they say this was a fatherly substantial structure.
trickling in as we confirm with the hospitals how many people were treated as they sort through some of the people who were transported by ambulance and some that walked into the hospitals. unfortunately, there was a father and daughter that perished in this incident. their names are being withheld at this time pending notification of next of kin. there are autopsies being performed as we speak to determine the cause of death. the investigation will involve the documentation of the scene which includes mapping out the scene as to exactly where things are located after the collapse and examining the actual setup of the tent to determine how it was set up all the cables where they were connected and things of that nature. we ll also be conducting a building code and fire code
[ inaudible question ] i don t have a count of them yet. fire chief and police chief will be getting that information to us this morning. how many are still in the hospital? we don t have that information either. [ inaudible question ] do you know if the tent was ever inspected? to the best of our knowledge, there was no inspection done by any local or state official. i can tell you that there was no state official and i believe that the locals did not inspect it, as well. there was no request made to them for any inspection. is an inspection required before something like this? there is a place of assembly permit required and we re tracking that down at this time. but to the best of our knowledge, no request was made to the local fire firnltofficial for that. got the fairgrounds have any requirements of their own? we have not looked at the contract with the fairgrounds at
we know that there were high winds up to 6 a5 miles per hour, there was hail falling. but the show went on. now we re also trying to understand exactly the status of those who were injured, the numbers have fluctuated as high as about two dozen or so. expecting to get an update as they try to figure out how this circus turned into a disaster. back to you. ron, thank you. i ll take you to a news conference right now with the fire marshal. the incident occurred in the walker brothers international circus tent located out of sarasota, florida. this was the 5:30 p.m. show that was ongoing at the time of the incident. there was approximately 100 people in the tent at the time of the collapse and we have reports that there were approximately 32 people that have been treated at four regional hospitals in the area. that information is still