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American Morning

Porch Collapse Kills 12 in Chicago

Aired June 30, 2003 - 07:08   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.


RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: Now to the big story out of Chicago. Officials there say a preliminary examination of the porch that collapsed killing 12 people found the structure to be sound. At least 57 people were hurt when the third floor structure suddenly gave way early Sunday, plunging into porches below it, and those porches were crowded with party-goers.
Gary Tuchman joins us now from Chicago. He's got the latest on the investigation -- Gary.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Renay.

How many times have you stood on a porch or a deck or a balcony with other people and never thought twice about the amount of weight? Well, that's one of the frightening things about this story, because, as you said, Renay, the initial inspection shows the porch was structurally sound. It was just the amount of weight that led to the tragedy.

This is building behind me. And right now you can see the door on the third floor. The porch has been taken away, and you can see right now just hanging over mid-air. But yesterday morning, shortly after midnight, people were coming out of that door, and that's when the chaos and the violence occurred.

The third floor porch collapsed on top of the second floor. It pancaked. Eleven people were killed on the scene when it happened, another person later died in the hospital, a total of 12 people, most of them were asphyxiated. At least 57 people were hurt. Most of these young people who were here were in their 20s. They knew each other. Many of them went to high school together at the New Trier High School, which is in Winnetka, Illinois, a northern suburb of Chicago.

Also many of the people who were here knew each other from the University of Chicago law school. They were celebrating and having a party because of a new tenant who moved into this building in the Lincoln Park neighborhood in Chicago.

Now, yesterday they pulled the remainder of the porch away, because they said it was dangerous leaving it here. The initial inspection shows there was no problem with the porch. However, and this is very important, as of now authorities have not found any permits that were supposed to have been issued to renovate the porch. It's believed that four or five years ago the porch was renovated. There are permits to show that renovations were allowed in other parts of this building. But as of now they're still looking for the permit that would have allowed the porch to be constructed.

The company that owns this building is named L.G. Properties. It is owned by a man named Phillip Pappas (ph). Phillips Pappas (ph) is said to be right now on a rafting trip in Canada, and it's believed at this point he may not even know yet what happened here because he's in such a remote part of Canada.

Renay -- back to you.

MIGUEL: And, Gary, one quick question. If it looks like the porch was structurally sound, at least from the preliminary investigation, it just appears to be a case of just too many people on that porch. What are Chicago city officials doing to warn apartment owners and also maybe, you know, residential owners, you know, folks with their homes who have similar porches, you know, how many people to have on their porches? What are they trying to get -- how are they trying to get the word out?

TUCHMAN: Very strict succinct advice. These porches are for going into an apartment and for coming out of an apartment. They are not for gatherings.

MIGUEL: All right, Gary Tuchman live in Chicago thanks so much.

One of the first people to reach the scene there was Ken Herzlich. He is a freelance photographer. Ken Herzlich joins us now from Chicago to share his thoughts on this.

Ken, thanks for being with us this morning.

KEN HERZLICH, FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER: You're welcome, Renay.

MIGUEL: So, tell us what you saw when you first got there. You said you had been listening to this on the scanner.

HERZLICH: Right. Actually, the first call that came out, they knew that they had a lot of injuries. And they called an EMS Plan 1, which initially brings five ambulances to the scene. So, I immediately started over here. I got here in about 10 minutes, and I was a just a little bit off the camera. Where we're at now is where I started shooting.

There were people in their early 20s injured, crying. The fire department was working in this area putting C-collars on them. They were trying to do a triage. They were giving some people oxygen. They were starting IVs.

There were a number of friends that were here also. Everybody was trying to figure out, you know, where everybody was, who was injured, what hospitals they were going on to. A lot of screaming, a lot of crying. It was a very bloody scene.

MIGUEL: You said you've shot other deck and porch collapses in the Chicago area before, but nothing like this. How so?

HERZLICH: I've done a number of them, but I looked in my records last night and there's never been a fatality at one of these porch collapses. There is always, you know, a lot of broken limbs, back injuries, neck injuries and the such, but this was different. There were a lot of people on this porch. And when it pancaked down, the people that were on the second level, they just didn't have a chance.

MIGUEL: I mean, and, you know, describing the kind of damage that you saw, it was just like as if one porch just kind of collapsed right down square on the other one? There was no listing or anything like that or snapping off in sections, it just came down right on top of the other one?

HERZLICH: Well, it did snap off in kind of sections. The middle of the porch is actually what came down first from the third floor, and then down onto two. And then the whole second level went down into a kind of a basement area. And there were a number of people that were crushed and trapped underneath the rubble that was in that basement area also.

MIGUEL: How soon after you got there did you notice the rescue effort getting under way to try to help these people?

HERZLICH: Oh, it was going on as I got here. They were well into it. There is a fire station that's actually only about three blocks from here, and the first responders on the scene escalated the alarm to bring more help and more ambulances. Eventually, they had 15 ambulances, an EMS Plan 3. And they were shuttling back and forth with the ambulances. As they dropped off a patient at the hospital, they came back, grabbed somebody else and they went to the hospital again. There were, like, nine different hospitals that they were taking people to all around the city.

MIGUEL: We're going to have to leave it there. Ken Herzlich, a freelance photographer in Chicago, thanks for sharing your thoughts this morning. We appreciate it.

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 - 07:08   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: Now to the big story out of Chicago. Officials there say a preliminary examination of the porch that collapsed killing 12 people found the structure to be sound. At least 57 people were hurt when the third floor structure suddenly gave way early Sunday, plunging into porches below it, and those porches were crowded with party-goers.
Gary Tuchman joins us now from Chicago. He's got the latest on the investigation -- Gary.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Renay.

How many times have you stood on a porch or a deck or a balcony with other people and never thought twice about the amount of weight? Well, that's one of the frightening things about this story, because, as you said, Renay, the initial inspection shows the porch was structurally sound. It was just the amount of weight that led to the tragedy.

This is building behind me. And right now you can see the door on the third floor. The porch has been taken away, and you can see right now just hanging over mid-air. But yesterday morning, shortly after midnight, people were coming out of that door, and that's when the chaos and the violence occurred.

The third floor porch collapsed on top of the second floor. It pancaked. Eleven people were killed on the scene when it happened, another person later died in the hospital, a total of 12 people, most of them were asphyxiated. At least 57 people were hurt. Most of these young people who were here were in their 20s. They knew each other. Many of them went to high school together at the New Trier High School, which is in Winnetka, Illinois, a northern suburb of Chicago.

Also many of the people who were here knew each other from the University of Chicago law school. They were celebrating and having a party because of a new tenant who moved into this building in the Lincoln Park neighborhood in Chicago.

Now, yesterday they pulled the remainder of the porch away, because they said it was dangerous leaving it here. The initial inspection shows there was no problem with the porch. However, and this is very important, as of now authorities have not found any permits that were supposed to have been issued to renovate the porch. It's believed that four or five years ago the porch was renovated. There are permits to show that renovations were allowed in other parts of this building. But as of now they're still looking for the permit that would have allowed the porch to be constructed.

The company that owns this building is named L.G. Properties. It is owned by a man named Phillip Pappas (ph). Phillips Pappas (ph) is said to be right now on a rafting trip in Canada, and it's believed at this point he may not even know yet what happened here because he's in such a remote part of Canada.

Renay -- back to you.

MIGUEL: And, Gary, one quick question. If it looks like the porch was structurally sound, at least from the preliminary investigation, it just appears to be a case of just too many people on that porch. What are Chicago city officials doing to warn apartment owners and also maybe, you know, residential owners, you know, folks with their homes who have similar porches, you know, how many people to have on their porches? What are they trying to get -- how are they trying to get the word out?

TUCHMAN: Very strict succinct advice. These porches are for going into an apartment and for coming out of an apartment. They are not for gatherings.

MIGUEL: All right, Gary Tuchman live in Chicago thanks so much.

One of the first people to reach the scene there was Ken Herzlich. He is a freelance photographer. Ken Herzlich joins us now from Chicago to share his thoughts on this.

Ken, thanks for being with us this morning.

KEN HERZLICH, FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER: You're welcome, Renay.

MIGUEL: So, tell us what you saw when you first got there. You said you had been listening to this on the scanner.

HERZLICH: Right. Actually, the first call that came out, they knew that they had a lot of injuries. And they called an EMS Plan 1, which initially brings five ambulances to the scene. So, I immediately started over here. I got here in about 10 minutes, and I was a just a little bit off the camera. Where we're at now is where I started shooting.

There were people in their early 20s injured, crying. The fire department was working in this area putting C-collars on them. They were trying to do a triage. They were giving some people oxygen. They were starting IVs.

There were a number of friends that were here also. Everybody was trying to figure out, you know, where everybody was, who was injured, what hospitals they were going on to. A lot of screaming, a lot of crying. It was a very bloody scene.

MIGUEL: You said you've shot other deck and porch collapses in the Chicago area before, but nothing like this. How so?

HERZLICH: I've done a number of them, but I looked in my records last night and there's never been a fatality at one of these porch collapses. There is always, you know, a lot of broken limbs, back injuries, neck injuries and the such, but this was different. There were a lot of people on this porch. And when it pancaked down, the people that were on the second level, they just didn't have a chance.

MIGUEL: I mean, and, you know, describing the kind of damage that you saw, it was just like as if one porch just kind of collapsed right down square on the other one? There was no listing or anything like that or snapping off in sections, it just came down right on top of the other one?

HERZLICH: Well, it did snap off in kind of sections. The middle of the porch is actually what came down first from the third floor, and then down onto two. And then the whole second level went down into a kind of a basement area. And there were a number of people that were crushed and trapped underneath the rubble that was in that basement area also.

MIGUEL: How soon after you got there did you notice the rescue effort getting under way to try to help these people?

HERZLICH: Oh, it was going on as I got here. They were well into it. There is a fire station that's actually only about three blocks from here, and the first responders on the scene escalated the alarm to bring more help and more ambulances. Eventually, they had 15 ambulances, an EMS Plan 3. And they were shuttling back and forth with the ambulances. As they dropped off a patient at the hospital, they came back, grabbed somebody else and they went to the hospital again. There were, like, nine different hospitals that they were taking people to all around the city.

MIGUEL: We're going to have to leave it there. Ken Herzlich, a freelance photographer in Chicago, thanks for sharing your thoughts this morning. We appreciate it.

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