
The Emergency Management Director for Atoka, Travis Mullins, told KXII that the stairwell from the second to the third story collapsed, falling onto the staircase from the first to the second floor and trapping people inside.
“Oh it was pretty scary, I was worried about who was downstairs and how bad it was,” Coby Scherrill told KXII. He was touring the building with McEntire at the time, the station reported.
“We were just touring the building and the stairwell was weak, it seemed weak but we did not realize how weak it was until several people had gone down it and then we heard the crash and saw the stairs fall,” he told KXII.