One Dead After Missouri Building Collapse

June 27, 2006 — -- What was supposed to be a night of celebration at an Elks Lodge in Clinton, Mo., took a tragic turn when the building collapsed, trapping members in the rubble.

About 40 people escaped during the collapse, which occurred as the lodge was marking its 100th anniversary and initiating new members at a dinner.

Nine people were later rescued. One member, Exalted Ruler Tony Crawford, was killed.

Witnesses said Crawford had been preparing to make a speech when the building crumbled.

"Oh man this is crazy," said Mike Posey who witnessed the collapse. "I ain't never seen anything like this in my whole life. This is wild. This is nuts."

The floors gave way at around 7:30 p.m., according to witnesses. Rescuers worked all night, using ladders, cameras, sound devices and dogs to reach survivors.

By 3 a.m., seven had been rescued. Several hours later, two others were pulled from the debris. Some of the trapped men used their cell phones to communicate with rescue workers.

"We just took volunteers out of the crowd, and they responded and went to a local lumberyard and they started gathering these materials so that they could be used to shore up the building," said Clinton police Chief Sonny Lynch.

Residents of Clinton -- a small town of 9,500 people -- were shocked.

"We'd finished our meal, and the floors just gave away," said survivor Barry Bullock. "Everybody had a pretty good idea that the building was falling in or there was something major. We checked on the people around us and immediately took plans to evacuate the area."

Bullock said he was sure he was going to die.

"When the floor gives away under you, you have nowhere to go. Everything turning pitch-black. You're just running for anything you can grab hold of. You don't even have time to think about it."

"You're pretty sure you're done for. You don't want to stop running. You wonder if it's ever going to quit falling away from you. We were able to make it to a safe area, to where we could exit the building through a stairway."

ABC News' Sonya Crawford contributed to this report