(WBBM NEWSRADIOA) -- Workplace safety investigators are now looking into what caused a fatal incident on a construction site tied to the University of Chicago Medical Center.
Authorities suggest high winds may have been a factor in the scaffold collapse where two workers feel nine floors, and at least one is confirmed dead.
The incident happened just before noon on the corner of South Drexel Avenue and East 57th Street at the University of Chicago Medical Center, the new cancer center, on Thursday.
When officials arrived on scene, a 27-year-old man was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. The man has been identified as David O'Donnell of Oak Forest.
"We believe that both fell from a scaffold which broke loose on the side of the building in the probably in the winds," said Larry Langford, the spokesperson for the Chicago Fire Department.
"And the Chicago Police Department is conducting a investigation right now into the cause."
The two men fell nine stories from the scaffolding at the university's future cancer care center.
"We didn't see any evidence of anybody tethered. The gentlemen that fell were not tethered to anything that we could see," Langford said.
WBBM's Mallory Vor Broker contributed to this report.