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Deadly Porch Collapse

Aired June 30, 2003 - 15:34   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: In Chicago, a porch, a party, lots of people. It was a deadly mix over the weekend when that porch collapsed, killing a dozen people. Gary Tuchman is in Chicago with the new information on that investigation -- Gary.
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Kyra. Chicago is a big city, but this neighborhood of Lincoln Park is a community. And it's a community that's in mourning after this terrifying incident that happened a day and a half ago.

Preliminary investigation shows there was nothing wrong with the porch behind me. Just too many people on it, leading to the deaths of 12 people, the injuries of 57 others. A short time ago an investigator was on the scene, he was doing some measurements. He told us he's with the Chicago Law Department, which works with the Building Department.

He wouldn't tell us specifically what kind of measurements he was doing. But obviously there's more investigationing to be done to make sure there was nothing wrong with this porch that did, indeed, collapse. Twelve people died, 11 people on the scene, one died in the hospital later. One person remains in very critical condition. Four in serious condition.

A short time ago, we talked with a man who was on the second floor of the building behind me. That's the floor where most of the people who died were standing. He told us what happened after he flew from the second floor into the pit below.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I happened to be on top of the pile and got off -- one of the first probably five people to get off. And I was just -- right when it stopped, all you saw was -- all you heard was screaming, and you saw just wood and people's hands. You didn't really see faces from underneath you.

And I tried to get off without stepping on -- I tried to step on everything that was solid, and tried to make sure there was no people underneath me. And I grabbed on to a gutter and I swung my legs over so not to get on anybody else. And jumped off and dialed 911.

TUCHMAN: Many apartment buildings in Chicago have porches. You can see this building here where the porch is, where you can see the holes under the windows and doors. That's where the porch was. It's eery looking at the doors now and seeing them lead to absolutely nowhere.

And what do the porches look like? You can see, right next door, there's another building with a very similar porch setup that was on this building. Porches are used for leaving the building (UNINTELLIGIBLE). They're not for sweeping (ph) verandas for large parties.

So you can see, if you have 70 or 80 people standing on that type of porch, it could potentially be dangerous. So it's certainly something to think about. On the ground here at the scene where the people perished, a man stopped by earlier and laid down crosses with the victims' names, 12 victims. There are pictures of some of the victims' pictures that he could get his hands on that he's put on the crosses.

Not everyone who died is a member of the Christian faith. There's at least one Muslim and one Jew. And the man who brought them here said that's one of the reasons he brought these teddy bears here. He realized that not everyone's a Christian and he wanted those teddy bears to honor the memories of anyone he perhaps might have insulted by putting their names on the crosseses here on the ground at Lincoln Park, where 12 people perished when this porch collapsed.

It's the first time in history of Chicago that people have died from a porch collapse. We'll go back to you, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Gary, even Miles and I were just talking about this, wondering, OK, was this porch up to code? If so, I have never seen on a porch a number of how many people are allowed to be on there. And could we possibly see a domino effect here and things change? Do we know anything about the code, first of all?

TUCHMAN: Well, one thing you know when you live in Chicago, and I don't live here now, but I was born in Chicago. And you're always taught you don't want to have a lot of people on steps that don't always look as sturdy as the rest of the building.

The fact is, these steps are not as sturdy as the rest of the construction of the apartment building. So you're told you never want to be standing around with 30 or 40 people on the steps. That being said, it commonly happens, especially on nice days with large gatherings. So it's certainly something to think about.

The code is based on every square foot, poundage per square foot. And it appears there were way too many pounds per square foot on this porch. So at this point, they haven't found a problem with the porch, just the problem with the number of people on the porch.

But -- and this is very important -- the investigation continues. As of now, they haven't located the permit that was needed to do the remodeling of this porch that was done about four or five years ago.

PHILLIPS: Gary Tuchman, you've always got the right answer with the right information. Thank you so much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired June 30, 2003 - 15:34   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: In Chicago, a porch, a party, lots of people. It was a deadly mix over the weekend when that porch collapsed, killing a dozen people. Gary Tuchman is in Chicago with the new information on that investigation -- Gary.
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Kyra. Chicago is a big city, but this neighborhood of Lincoln Park is a community. And it's a community that's in mourning after this terrifying incident that happened a day and a half ago.

Preliminary investigation shows there was nothing wrong with the porch behind me. Just too many people on it, leading to the deaths of 12 people, the injuries of 57 others. A short time ago an investigator was on the scene, he was doing some measurements. He told us he's with the Chicago Law Department, which works with the Building Department.

He wouldn't tell us specifically what kind of measurements he was doing. But obviously there's more investigationing to be done to make sure there was nothing wrong with this porch that did, indeed, collapse. Twelve people died, 11 people on the scene, one died in the hospital later. One person remains in very critical condition. Four in serious condition.

A short time ago, we talked with a man who was on the second floor of the building behind me. That's the floor where most of the people who died were standing. He told us what happened after he flew from the second floor into the pit below.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I happened to be on top of the pile and got off -- one of the first probably five people to get off. And I was just -- right when it stopped, all you saw was -- all you heard was screaming, and you saw just wood and people's hands. You didn't really see faces from underneath you.

And I tried to get off without stepping on -- I tried to step on everything that was solid, and tried to make sure there was no people underneath me. And I grabbed on to a gutter and I swung my legs over so not to get on anybody else. And jumped off and dialed 911.

TUCHMAN: Many apartment buildings in Chicago have porches. You can see this building here where the porch is, where you can see the holes under the windows and doors. That's where the porch was. It's eery looking at the doors now and seeing them lead to absolutely nowhere.

And what do the porches look like? You can see, right next door, there's another building with a very similar porch setup that was on this building. Porches are used for leaving the building (UNINTELLIGIBLE). They're not for sweeping (ph) verandas for large parties.

So you can see, if you have 70 or 80 people standing on that type of porch, it could potentially be dangerous. So it's certainly something to think about. On the ground here at the scene where the people perished, a man stopped by earlier and laid down crosses with the victims' names, 12 victims. There are pictures of some of the victims' pictures that he could get his hands on that he's put on the crosses.

Not everyone who died is a member of the Christian faith. There's at least one Muslim and one Jew. And the man who brought them here said that's one of the reasons he brought these teddy bears here. He realized that not everyone's a Christian and he wanted those teddy bears to honor the memories of anyone he perhaps might have insulted by putting their names on the crosseses here on the ground at Lincoln Park, where 12 people perished when this porch collapsed.

It's the first time in history of Chicago that people have died from a porch collapse. We'll go back to you, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Gary, even Miles and I were just talking about this, wondering, OK, was this porch up to code? If so, I have never seen on a porch a number of how many people are allowed to be on there. And could we possibly see a domino effect here and things change? Do we know anything about the code, first of all?

TUCHMAN: Well, one thing you know when you live in Chicago, and I don't live here now, but I was born in Chicago. And you're always taught you don't want to have a lot of people on steps that don't always look as sturdy as the rest of the building.

The fact is, these steps are not as sturdy as the rest of the construction of the apartment building. So you're told you never want to be standing around with 30 or 40 people on the steps. That being said, it commonly happens, especially on nice days with large gatherings. So it's certainly something to think about.

The code is based on every square foot, poundage per square foot. And it appears there were way too many pounds per square foot on this porch. So at this point, they haven't found a problem with the porch, just the problem with the number of people on the porch.

But -- and this is very important -- the investigation continues. As of now, they haven't located the permit that was needed to do the remodeling of this porch that was done about four or five years ago.

PHILLIPS: Gary Tuchman, you've always got the right answer with the right information. Thank you so much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com