COLUMBIA, Mo. - A 23-year veteran firefighter was killed Saturday while helping evacuate students from a University of Missouri-run apartment complex after a second-story walkway collapsed, according to Columbia Fire Department officials.

Columbia Fire Chief Chuck Witt said at a news conference that Lt. Bruce Britt became trapped beneath rubble while responding to the collapse at University Village Apartments and was pronounced dead at University Hospital.

Firefighters responded at 4:45 a.m. to a structural collapse at the central Missouri apartment complex, Witt said. Some second-floor residents had to climb out their windows and down ladders to get to safety. No residents were injured.

University Chancellor R.Bowen Loftin expressed his condolences to Britt’s family and said structural engineers had been sent in to examine the building. He said all other Residential Life facilities owned by the university were being inspected and that on Monday all of the university’s buildings would be examined to ensure structural integrity.

Residential Life director Frankie Minor, in a story published in The Columbia Missourian in December 2012, said his department had explored since 2008 renovating or rebuilding four aging complexes, including University Village. The work was not done because of a lack of funding, he said.

Front Section, Pages 5 on 02/23/2014