Iowa Building Collapse: Officials Plan Demolition

Plans were underway to demolish a six-story apartment building that partially collapsed in Iowa over the weekend, officials said, after at least nine people were pulled from the damaged structure.

More than a dozen people were initially escorted out of the building when it collapsed in Davenport, in eastern Iowa, on Sunday afternoon, and eight were later rescued, Chief Michael Carlsten, of the city’s fire department, said at a news conference on Monday.

One man was taken to the hospital, but Chief Carlsten did not know the man’s condition. There was no information about other injuries.

At the news conference, Chief Carlsten said officials did not know of anyone else who was still in the building, but another woman was rescued on Monday night, according to local news media reports. There were no reported fatalities.

The woman who was rescued on Monday night had been hiding under a couch in a portion of the building that appeared to still be intact, according to NBC News.

Mayor Mike Matson said on Monday that firefighters and emergency medical workers saved lives by rushing into the building, which has 84 residential and commercial units.

Firefighters discovered a large natural gas leak and a water leak at the building, but the cause of the collapse was not immediately known, Chief Carlsten said.

Rich Oswald, the city’s director of development and neighborhood services, said work was being done on the outside of the building at the time of the collapse, and there were reports of bricks falling from the building earlier this week.

“With the current structure in imminent danger of collapse, the necessity to demolish this building stems specifically from our desire to maintain as much safety for the surrounding areas as possible,” Mr. Oswald said. The timing of the planned demolition was unclear, although The Quad City Times reported that it could begin as soon as Tuesday.

Officials were scheduled to provide an update on the collapse on Tuesday morning.

Aaron Aguilar, 37, was at the scene of the collapse on Monday with his 3-year-old daughter. He said that he had once been a maintenance worker at the building, in which he also lived. He said the building had lost part of its roof during a damaging storm that swept through Iowa in 2020, and that residents in that section had to be evacuated. He said that part of the building was the same as the section that collapsed on Sunday.

John Peragine contributed reporting from Davenport, Iowa, and Derrick Bryson Taylor from London.