San Antonio Fire Chief Gives Update After 46 Found Dead in Trailer

Officials in San Antonio, Texas, said 46 people were found dead inside an 18-wheel trailer on June 27 and a further 16, including children, were taken to hospital as a result of what the city’s mayor called “a horrific human tragedy”.

Officials including San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg, Police Chief William McManus, and Fire Chief Charles Hood spoke at the press conference on Monday evening.

McManus said that his department was called shortly before 6 pm on Monday to the intersection of Cassin Drive and Quintana Road in southwest San Antonio, after a local worker had responded to cries of help.

He said three people were in custody, but declined to comment on how they were connected to the incident. He also said that the investigation had been turned over to Homeland Security Investigations.

San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood described how firefighters opened the trailer of the 18-wheeler to find “stacks of bodies”. No water or working air conditioning was found in the trailer.

He said 12 adults and four children were taken to hospital suffering heatstroke and exhaustion. “We’re not supposed to open up a truck and see stacks of bodies in there,” Hood said. “None of us come to work imagining that.” Credit: San Antonio Police Department via Storyful

Video transcript

WILLIAM MCMANUS: The first call came in about 10 minutes to 6:00 this afternoon. A fire-- a worker, who works in one of the buildings up here behind me, heard a cry for help. Came out to investigate found the trailer with the doors partially opened. Opened it up to take a look. Found a number of deceased individuals inside. So we have three people in custody. Don't know if they are absolutely connected to this or not.

This investigation has been turned over to HSI. It is now a federal investigation. We turned it over to them about two hours ago.

CHARLES HOOD: At this time we have processed approximately 46 bodies that have been triaged, and tagged, and declared deceased at this time. Fortunately, we were able to transport 16 people, 12 of those are adults and four are pediatric. All of them were conscious at the time of our transportation. The patients that we saw were hot to the touch. They were suffering from heat stroke, exhaustion.

No signs of water in the vehicle. It was a refrigerated tractor trailer but there was no visible working AC unit on that rig. Again, we're not supposed to open up a truck and see stacks of bodies in there. None of us come to work imagining that. So we're working with the behavioral health folks right now.