Days before a condo in Downtown Davenport, Iowa partially collapsed, a contractor approached by the building’s landlord warned that the site was dangerous.
“I haven’t slept since knowing what happened,” Ryan Shaffer, co-owner of R.A. Masonry, a construction company, said in a Facebook post.
“Four days before the collapse, I was there looking at the building and ordered evacuation,” he said. “I showed up three or four times a day trying to evacuate,” the contractor continued, adding that he contacted officials about the issue.
“The negligence and ignorance will be accounted for. It was avoidable and people need to be held responsible,” he said.
Officials now believe two men likely perished in the collapse. They have been identified as Ryan Hitchcock and Branden Colvin. Officials initially said that five people remained unaccounted for. That number fell to three on Thursday now that two people were safely accounted for nearby and in Texas.
First responders immediately evacuated dozens of people from the structure straight after the cave in. As of Wednesday, nine people had been rescued.
Officials estimate that the 100-year-old property had a total of 80 units. When the incident occurred, approximately 53 people were living there.
Red flags about the building’s structural issues began emerging four months ago. Speaking to the Quad-City Times, Shaffer said that Andrew Wold, the building’s owner, approached him in February about potentially doing some work on the property.
His $50,000 bid was rejected, Shaffer said, because it was too high. “He wanted to cut the cost by cutting out the shoring and supporting of the building,” he told the newspaper, explaining that such work is done when a property is considered unsafe.
“I said, ‘If we don’t do it this way exactly, I’m not putting my guys in there. Somebody is going to die,’” Shaffer told the outlet. The property had been undergoing repairs in the days leading up to the collapse.
In a statement released Thursday, Wold said, “Our thoughts and prayers are with the family during this difficult time. We would like to thank the brave men and women of Davenport Fire, Davenport Police Department and all other first responders for their tireless efforts to ensure everyone’s safety.
“We have been working closely with the American Red Cross and other agencies to assist the displaced tenants affected by this event. We are forever grateful to them for all of their assistance with our tenants.”
City officials, experts also noticed red flags
After David Valliere, a structural engineer from Select Structural Engineering performed an emergency site visit in February, he informed officials about a “concern on the west exterior wall where a localized area of brick is cracked and crumbling,” according to records released by the city this week, which included residential complaints, several notices to vacate, inspection reports and other materials.
He suggested that the landlord begin work on the building, but stated that, “the main takeaway from the inspection is that this damaged area is not an imminent danger to the entire building and its residents.”
“An evacuation or lockout of the building is not necessary at this time.”
Later that month, Valliere’s assessment became increasingly dire following another inspection of the building, which occurred on Feb. 28.
“At the meeting, the mason pointed out that the area immediately to the north of the work area has a large and potentially dangerous void beneath the façade of the clay brick.”
He continued: “This void appears to have been caused by the collapse of some mass of clay brick between the façade and [concrete].
“This collapsed mass is now settled and piling up against the inside face of the façade, pushing it outward. This will soon cause a large panel of façade to also collapse, creating a safety problem and potentially destabilizing the upper areas of brick façade,” Valliere stated, adding that the problem was not visible during prior visits.
In his latest report, he did not state whether the building was safe for occupancy. Trishna Pradhan, the city’s chief building official who is believed to have resigned Monday, knew about the issues surrounding the building, according to a notice of public hazard dated Feb. 2.
“Part of the south-west wall has been gradually failing. This failure is seen to continue on the inside with brick masonry as well. There is visible crumbling of this exterior load bearing wall under the support beam,” she warned.
Engineers had been alerting officials about falling bricks coming from the building as early as January 2020, according to the documents.
Chris Townsend, a local engineer, sent an email to Davenport Fire Marshal Jim Morris in August of that year stating that “the brick facade has separated in some locations causing the brick ties to come loose which allows bricks to fall.”
“It was my recommendation that Bi-State Masonry either remove or stabilize all of the loose brick and limestone immediately to prevent brick from falling to the ground.”
Bi-State Masonry is a contractor from Rock Island, Ill.
Still, he said, “It is my professional opinion that the damage to the building is not structural and the building is safe to occupy.”
While taking questions from reporters, Davenport Mayor Mike Matson, addressed concerns about why the building was considered safe when professionals reported multiple problems with the property.
“It is a line to say it’s so unsafe you have to be kicked out of your home,” he said. “I don’t know that anyone can anticipate a building collapsing.”
Besides the structural issues, there had been numerous problems with some of the building’s units dating back years.
Residential complaints released by the city show tenants raised concerns about the lack of heating in units, damaged and missing ceiling tiles, damaged handrails and water damage seeping into units with considerable mold.
In May of last year, officials declared the property a nuisance because solid waste and debris continually surrounded it.
What’s more, Morris personally sent an email to Wold about numerous issues with the building’s fire safety provisions in March.
Among them were:
- Fire extinguishers were not inspected and tagged annually.
- Multiple emergency lights did not function throughout the building.
- Accumulation of combustible material in basement, utility closets.
- Multiple exit lights did not function throughout the building.
- Garbage in hallways and overall lack of care to the up keep of the building to included discarded furniture stacked in the exit stairwells.
- Fire doors in the stairwell on multiple levels do not close completely and latch.
- Fire doors in the hallway on multiple levels do not function properly.
- Multiple apartments have smoke detectors greater than 10 years old.
- Fire Protection Standpipe missing caps on multiple floors and handle on 3rd floor.
“The lack of responsiveness with this property is unacceptable, this is a R-2 building that has many occupants and requires the life safety equipment to be fixed and inspected as required by code,” Morris wrote at the time. R-2 refers to the zoning categorization the building fell under, making it a building that was used for single family residences.
At points, Wold, who owns at least three other properties in the area, did not give officials access to inspect the building, records show. On at least one occasion, the landlord hired himself to be a contractor on the building.
During a press conference on Thursday, City Attorney Tom Warner expressed concerns about Wold transferring the title of the building following the collapse to avoid demolition fees.
“When we bring that building down, it’s going to be costly,” he said.
Officials did not say when the building was likely to be taken down, and during a press conference on Thursday, Matson said he could not provide a timeline.
The operation has now become a recovery mission, officials added.
