[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Page 9771]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              ANNIVERSARY OF THE L'AMBIANCE PLAZA COLLAPSE

  Mr. DODD. Mr. President, yesterday marked the 20th anniversary of a 
dark day in my State's history: The day the L'Ambiance Plaza towers 
collapsed in Bridgeport and took with them the lives of 28 Connecticut 
construction workers.
  For millions of people in Connecticut, that day's images are still 
fresh; time can blunt their pain, but it can never erase them. We 
remember the shock: 16 stories of new apartments reduced with a roar, 
within seconds, to ruined concrete and steel. We remember the hundreds 
of volunteers who combed the wrecked piles for their friends. This is 
how one newspaper reported their remarkable endurance: ``Physically and 
emotionally drained by a nightmarish task of seeking and sometimes 
finding the bodies of friends and loved ones, some of the volunteers 
have pushed themselves to exhaustion, working around the clock and then 
begging to go on working.'' We remember their frantic search for 
survivors, and the slow-dawning truth that there were none.
  But above all, we remember 28 men who died too soon. They were union 
men from Bridgeport and Waterbury who poured concrete, laid pipe, and 
fixed steel. Not a single one of them went to work that morning 
expecting to die; but each knew the high risks of his trade, and 
willingly took them on to make a good living for his family.
  We can clear rubble and rebuild towers, but not a single life can be 
replaced. If this tragedy can give us anything to be thankful for, it 
is the end of the dangerous lift-slab construction method that led to 
the collapse. We can and must demand the safest conditions for all 
workers, and do everything it takes to protect them. But try as we 
might, we will never be able to outlaw collapse, or regulate accidents, 
or legislate against tragedy.
  We can only send our thanks to the men and women who risk themselves 
so we can lie down and wake up in safety and comfort. For those who 
died 20 years ago, we can pledge to keep their memories fresh. And 
today, we can repeat their names:

     Michael Addona
     Augustus Alman
     Glenn Canning
     Mario Colello
     William Daddona
     Francesco D'Addona
     Donald Emanuel
     Vincent Figliomeni
     Herbert Goeldner
     Terrance Gruber
     John Hughes
     Joesph Lowe
     John Magnoli
     Rocco Mancini
     Richard McGill
     Mario Musso
     Nicholas Nardella
     John Page
     Guiseppe Paternostro
     Antonio Perrugini
     John Puskar Jr.
     Anthony Rinaldi
     Albert Ritz
     Michael Russillo
     Reginald Siewert
     William Varga
     Frank Visconti
     Scott Ward

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