FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Heather Riggs, who had been out of her home for over a year after a freak crane accident, has a new roof over her head.
“It’s been so hard for my daughter and I being displaced,” she told Local 10 News on Wednesday.
The incident was all captured on the body camera of a police officer who happened to be nearby that disastrous day in October 2020.
A giant truck-mounted crane was supposed to be lifting a shed over Riggs’ neighbor’s backyard when instead it toppled over, crashing onto and into Riggs’ house on Northeast 57th Street in Fort Lauderdale.
Riggs and her kids were on vacation when it happened.
Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue officials say had they been home, they could have died.
Crews managed to rescue the Riggs family’s pets from the home.
Last year, city fire officials said the ground gave way, causing the truck to tilt and bring the crane down with it.
A view from Sky 10 showed the crane on the roof with knocked-down power lines behind it.
But on Wednesday, a bright and shiny new roof was installed and once the interior repairs are done, Riggs, her family and her pets can finally come home.
“We were really happy to just be a part of getting that roof together and excited about putting a little pink bow on the roof,” Chase Roofing CEO Tamara Chase said.
“It felt like I was having a piece of closure — a year of closure,” Riggs said.