BELLEVUE, Wash. - The man who died in when a crane crashed into his apartment Thursday evening was 31-year-old Matthew Ammon, a patent attorney for Microsoft.

He had only worked there for five months, after moving from Kansas City. Ammon was originally from the Pittsburgh area, according to general counsel for Microsoft Brad Smith.

The 210-foot crane collapsed around 7:45 p.m. at the high-rise complex construction project on 108th Avenue NE near NE 4th Street, at 333 Bellevue Tower, which is an office building that has been vacant for a few years.

It smashed into the west side of the Pinnacle Bell Centre Apartments, killing Ammon, who lived on the top floor. It also sliced through two other buildings, the Civica Office Commons and Plaza 305.

Part of downtown Bellevue remained shut down Friday as investigators searched for what caused the construction crane to come crashing down Thursday night.

108th Avenue NE between NE 2th Street and NE 4th Street will remain closed for at least a couple of days during the investigation. About 100 residents in the apartment building were also evacuated overnight. About a quarter of the building's occupants have been relocated to a nearby hotel.

"We're 99 percent sure no one else is in the building, no other people have been found," said Bellevue Fire Chief Mario Trevino. " Rescue dogs did not alert on any other victims."

Businesses impacted

A number of businesses have been impacted by the crane collapse in the heart of Bellevue's financial district.

KING

Matthew Ammon worked at Microsoft.

At is came down, the crane hit the Plaza 305 building and The Civica Commons building. According to the Civica Commons Building's Web site, some major companies are tenants in the building. They include Microsoft, Infosys Technologies, Metlife Financial Services and Morgan Stanley.

"Some of the offices are closed," said Richard Redecki, who works at Morgan Stanley.

"There's rubble, there's dust everywhere," according to Laurie Ascanio, who works in Liberty Financial Group, which is in the building's south tower.

Pacific Continental Bank was relocating its workers to other facilities in the Seattle area.

There are numerous construction projects under way in the area around the accident site. Work at many of those projects was halted.

KING

The crane was still being dismantled Friday afternoon.

Close calls

Many people in the buildings were shaken by the close call with the fallen crane. Jon Cortez was in the Pinnacle Bell Centre Apartments when the crane crashed through his apartment.

"There was about rumbling for about 10 seconds," said Cortez. " My sliding door by the deck, that is where the crane actually fell, the very tip of the crane. It was like a few inches or feet, I would have probably been crushed."

"The building shook like it was an earthquake," said Jennifer Rupley, office worker in one of the buildings. "I was sitting at my desk and the wall and the window crashed behind me."

When it fell, the basket of the crane came to rest about 30 feet above the ground and did not make impact with the ground, explaining why the crane operator lived through the incident, said Bellevue Fire Chief Trevino.

The crane operator suffered minor injuries from the accident. He told the fire department he was getting ready to shut down for the night when he heard a loud snap and the crane went down.

He was able to pull himself out of the crane cage as firefighters used a ladder to retrieve him about 20 to 30 feet above the ground. He was taken to Overlake Hospital for treatment of his injuries.

Bellevue's mayor says he's relieved more people weren't killed in the accident

"If it occurred an hour earlier it would have been worse," said Bellevue mayor Grant Degginger. "If it happened during rush hour, it could have been worse."

The crane fell several feet from The Melting Pot restaurant, which was full of diners at the time. Everyone was evacuated and no one inside or outside the restaurant was hurt.

As officials continue their investigation, extra safety precautions are being taken at nearby construction projects. Iron workers at a construction site at the Bellevue Galleria were sent home Friday morning so engineers could assess the stability of their two cranes.

AP

A toppled construction crane sits on debris from a damaged building Thursday in Bellevue, Wash.

"It's a total safety issue. If this one's going to go down, we're that close, ours could probably go down too," said Jason Takahashi, iron worker. "We work with the crane. We're always below it, so it's a concern for us."

It will take a long time to find out what the cause of the accident was, officials with Labor & Industries said.

They said L&I isn't required to look at construction cranes and don't know who inspected the crane, They said it's the responsibility of the contractor.

The crane is owned by Morrow, based in Salem, Ore., and was leased to contracter Lease Crutcher Lewis.

KING 5's Chris Daniels, Jesse Jones, KING5.com's Karin Czulik and the Associated Press contributed to this report.