People Rescued After Collapse of Staircase Include a Star

The only hint that something could go wrong was the "historic staircase." One collapsed in an Oklahoma town on Tuesday, trapping seven people on upper floors, including Reba McIntire. The group had no way down until rescue crews arrived, NBC reports. Once there, they helped the country music star out a second-floor window and down a ladder. There were no serious injuries, just "bumps and bruises," a local reporter tweeted, though one person was taken to a hospital with minor injuries. "We were safely evacuated from the building thanks to the quick response from the Atoka fire and police departments," McIntire posted.

Coby Scherrill, who was in the group—which included McIntire's boyfriend—looking the place over for a future project, said the historic staircase had seemed weak, per KXII. "But we did not realize how weak it was until several people had gone down it," he said, "and then we heard the crash and saw the stairs fall." An Atoka emergency official said the section between the second and third floors collapsed and fell onto the staircase below it, trapping some people on each upper floor. The building is more than 100 years old, Scherrill said. Atoka is about 130 miles southeast of Oklahoma City. (More Reba McEntire stories.)