{"id":17621,"date":"2023-05-29T11:29:40","date_gmt":"2023-05-29T18:29:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/davenport-officials-no-deaths-confirmed-no-known-people-trapped-in-iowa-building-collapse\/"},"modified":"2023-05-29T11:29:41","modified_gmt":"2023-05-29T18:29:41","slug":"davenport-officials-no-deaths-confirmed-no-known-people-trapped-in-iowa-building-collapse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/davenport-officials-no-deaths-confirmed-no-known-people-trapped-in-iowa-building-collapse\/","title":{"rendered":"Davenport officials: No deaths confirmed, no known people trapped in Iowa building collapse"},"content":{"rendered":"

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DAVENPORT,\u00a0IOWA\u00a0\u2014 There were no confirmed fatalities and no known people still trapped the morning after a six-storey apartment building in the eastern\u00a0Iowa\u00a0city of Davenport partially collapsed, authorities said Monday.<\/p>\n

Davenport Fire Chief Michael Carlsten said at a news conference Monday that workers searched for survivors throughout the night and rescued one person from the six-storey building \u2013 bringing the total number of people rescued by fire officials to eight. An additional 12 people were escorted out by fire crews when they first responded to the collapse on Sunday evening.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo known individuals are trapped in that facility,\u201d Carlsten said.<\/p>\n

Authorities have not released how many people were injured or provided details on the nature of their injuries. Carlsten did say that the person who was rescued overnight was in the hospital.<\/p>\n

Rescue teams, including K-9 units, were inside the building all night.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen something like this happens here, and tragedy strikes, our responders immediately do their work and their job and I can\u2019t thank them enough,\u201d Davenport Mayor Mike Matson said.<\/p>\n

Rescuers were called to the scene shortly before 5 p.m. Sunday. Carlsten said the back of the apartment complex collapsed and had separated from the building, which houses apartments on the upper floors and businesses on the ground level.<\/p>\n

Authorities found a gas leak after the collapse, Carlsten said, while water also had leaked throughout the floors of the structure.<\/p>\n

The stability of the building was still a concern.<\/p>\n

Carlsten said officials were \u201ccurrently finishing the rescue phase of our operation and soon it will become a recovery operations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cause of the collapse was not immediately known.<\/p>\n

Rich Oswald, City of Davenport director of development and neighborhood services, said at a news conference Sunday that work was being done on the building\u2019s exterior at the time of the collapse.<\/p>\n

Reports of bricks falling from the building earlier this week were part of that work and the building\u2019s owner had a permit for the project, Oswald said.<\/p>\n

The Quad-City Times reported Robert Robinson, a second-floor resident, had gone outside and returned as alarms went off in the building.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we started to go back in the lights went out,\u201d he told the newspaper. \u201cAll of a sudden everybody started running out saying the building collapsed. I\u2019m glad we came down when we did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robinson and his girlfriend were able to take the elevator down just in time, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is horrible,\u201d he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t have anywhere to go. Nothing to eat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tadd Machovec, a Davenport contractor, told the newspaper he was inside putting up a support beam when the building came down.<\/p>\n

Some people in the area said the building has had problems. City officials said Sunday that they had several complaints from residents about needed repairs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe tenants told us the building was going to collapse,\u201d said Jennifer Smith, co-owner of Fourth Street Nutrition, which moved into the building this winter.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt sounds bad, but we have been calling the city and giving complaints since December. Our bathroom caved in December,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Smith said water damage has been apparent since they moved into their space. Her fellow co-owner, Deonte Mack, said fire crews were in the building as recently as Thursday for an inspection.<\/p>\n

The Quad-City Times reported the building is owned by Andrew Wold. A working phone number for Wold was not immediately available Sunday night and attempts to reach him for comment were unsuccessful.<\/p>\n

The newspaper reported nearly 20 permits were filed in 2022 for building repairs, mainly for plumbing or electrical issues, according to the county assessor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

There were 84 units in the building, a mixture of residential and commercial spaces, the mayor said.<\/p>\n

In June 2021, 98 people died when a highrise condominium near Miami Beach collapsed in the middle of the night.<\/p>\n

The Champlain Towers South had a long history of maintenance problems, and shoddy construction techniques were used in the early 1980s. Other possible factors for the collapse include sea level rise caused by climate change and damage caused by saltwater intrusion.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n