# BALCONIES COLLAPSE AT LONG BEACH NY APARTMENTS



## mark handler (Sep 4, 2016)

BALCONIES COLLAPSE AT LONG BEACH NY APARTMENTS
http://abc7ny.com/news/5-balconies-collapse-at-long-beach-apartments/1490728/

LONG BEACH, Long Island (WABC) -- Several balconies fell one on top of the other Tuesday morning from an apartment building in Long Beach, Long Island.

Five balconies collapsed at the building at Shore Road and Long Beach Boulevard.

Long Beach Police said no injuries were reported.

"It seems the middle balcony may have given and then the top one came down," said Long Beach Fire Department Chief Robert Tuccillo. "Thank God it happened early in the morning. No one was sitting on their patios. No one was walking by."

The building is in the early stages of construction. Fire officials said a company set up scaffolding just a few days ago to repair decaying bricks, and that was enough to cause everything to fall.

"This wasn't safe from the get go. That scaffolding just helped it come down," said Tuccillo.

"I was in bed and I heard a large crash. I thought it was maybe a garbage truck," another resident said.







Here's what the outside of the building looked like in February 2013, as viewed by Google Maps Street View:







This is an occupied three-story building a block from the beach and city officials are investigating.

The City of Long Beach says the 67-year-old building has no violations and that residents have not filed any formal complaints with the city's Building Department.

"The Building Department is here on scene, and I know we'll be checking the history and doing a full investigation and coordinating with all the proper parties," said Jack Schnirman, City Manager.

Tricia McNulty lives in the one of the apartments. It was her balcony that came crashing down first, causing several more to collapse.

She showed Eyewitness News pictures she says she's been sending for months to her landlord about decaying bricks on her balcony.

"I spoke to the lady below me this morning and told her not to go on her balcony, my balcony is about to collapse and I told her to take everything in," she said. "I Left early today for work. I'm very blessed I left early."

Eyewitness News asked the landlord Carmine Tepedino about the photos.

"Tenants always come up with different stories. As soon as we found out there was a need to repair, we called a couple of contractors and we got one who started work," Tepedino said.

Tuesday afternoon, engineers decided all the balconies needed to come down because of brick and concrete decay.

Residents of 18 apartments are not being allowed back in.

"I think they said two days they have to knock down all the balconies. I have a place to stay thank God with good friends in the neighborhood," said Lauren Beattie, a tenant.


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## jar546 (Sep 5, 2016)

Design or maintenance problem,............or both?


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## fatboy (Sep 5, 2016)

jar546 said:


> Design or maintenance problem,............or both?



I would surmise delayed/ignored maintenance , I had almost the exact same collapse in my jurisdiction two years ago. 3 story buildings, the first story at grade. The second floor deck collapsed, took out the third floor also. Fortunately there was no brick, as there were some folks on the decks, got away with only minor injuries. Delayed maintenance, 50 year old decks, middle one simply pulled away, acting as a hinge to pull the top on down.


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## mark handler (Sep 5, 2016)

"The building is in the early stages of construction"
Assume design or construction.


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## rogerpa (Sep 5, 2016)

Not new construction


mark handler said:


> "The building is in the early stages of construction"


The rest of the statement...


> Fire officials said a company set up scaffolding just a few days ago to repair decaying bricks, and that was enough to cause everything to fall.


Later in the article ...


> The City of Long Beach says the 67-year-old building has no violations and that residents have not filed any formal complaints with the city's Building Department.


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## jar546 (Sep 5, 2016)

mark handler said:


> "The building is in the early stages of construction"
> Assume design or construction.



Not unless they article was completely wrong.  Repair for concrete and brick decay


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## ICE (Jun 18, 2017)

It happened again:
https://www.yahoo.com/gma/deck-coll...e-injured-043006189--abc-news-topstories.html


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## mark handler (Jun 18, 2017)

jar546 said:


> Not unless they article was completely wrong.  Repair for concrete and brick decay


"Early stages of construction..." per the article, not per me.


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## Mark K (Jun 18, 2017)

Seriously doubt the problem was decaying bricks.  More likely wood.

Given that the building was 67 years old it is pretty safe to say that the primary problem wasn't design.

Suggest that if they had periodically inspected the building they would have identified that something was wrong before it got this bad.  I believe you will find that owners of rental property, at least in California, have an obligation to periodically inspect the property.


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