Dashcam, bodycam videos show first moments after Irving garage collapse

Police video obtained by FOX4 shows the first up close and personal look at the Irving parking garage collapse.

Two of the first officers to arrive at the accident site Tuesday morning had their dashboard cameras rolling, but it was their body cameras that really captured the uncertainty of the moment.

From Officer Kenneth Fay's perspective, it's easy to see Irving police had no way of knowing exactly what they were dealing with. Even the firefighters could be seen keeping their distance.

Officer Fay tried to explain it to his supervisor.

“It's just that, it's hard to describe without seeing it. The two level parking garage, all the concrete from the upper level with cars on top of it have come down on the cars on the base floor. So there's several vehicles and we can't go in there cause it's still falling to see if we have any victims,” Fay said.

The next priority became keeping all the gawkers back, which takes some persuasion.

“Don't stand under the garage,” he says. “Hey you, with the phone taking pictures. What don't you understand? Get back.”

The officers even start creeping down the stairs to the bottom level for a closer look.

On top of the garage, Officer Ramona Washington is also engaged in crowd control. She recognizes what the civilians do not -- that the entire platform is unstable.

“Can I get you all to go back in please? I'm not even sure if what we're standing on is secure,” Washington said.

As more officers arrive, they tackle the challenge of trying to figure out if any of the office workers are unaccounted for. Within minutes, police are taping off the entire garage and a search and rescue team determines no one is inside any of the crushed vehicles.

But Officer Washington's concern becomes reality four hours later when another section of the deck collapses.

Officer Fay summed up what he and most of people were thinking:

“This is a first for me, brother. That's crazy,” Fay said.

Several people were allowed to retrieve their vehicles before that second collapse on Tuesday. Since then, the garage has been condemned and remains off limits.

Irving fire officials said an engineering team is taking video surveys of the garage to determine if and when other vehicles can be retrieved.