A wooden deck crumpled under a group of Fourth of July partiers in Alabama, killing one person and injuring six others.

Seven partygoers plummeted three stories when the deck at an apartment complex in the Birmingham suburb of Hoover collapsed Sunday night. Two uninhabited decks below were crushed by the falling debris.

Hoover Fire Department spokesman Rusty Lowe said one person was pronounced dead at the hospital, another is in critical and three are hospitalized with serious injuries. Two were treated for minor injuries and released.

The coroner did not immediately return a call for comment on the death.

The cause of the collapse is being investigated.

Lowe said it was fortunate the lower decks were empty. He said: "It definitely could have been worse."