Davenport fire chief Mike Carlsten speaks to reporters before the apartment building on 324 Main Street that collapsed shortly before 5 p.m. Sunday. Screen capture courtesy of City of Davenport
May 29 (UPI) — Rescue operations were underway Sunday night after a six-story building partially collapsed in the eastern Iowa city of Davenport.
The entire back of the apartment building on 324 Main Street collapsed shortly before 5 p.m. Sunday, with responders initially rescuing seven people from the joint residential-commercial structure with a dozen others having self-evacuated, authorities said during an evening press conference before building.
The cause of the collapse was under investigation with the number of people unaccounted for unknown. Davenport fire chief Mike Carlsten told reporters that some occupants received treatment for injuries and that debris continued to fall amid the initial search of the structure.
Carlsten said their main concerns were those unaccounted for and the structural stability of the building.
“The crews will continue to work through the night. In fact, crews have just started to enter the building again to do a secondary search,” he said.
Davenport Mayor Mike Matson added that “some people” were unaccounted for and that their focus “is to see if there’s any more victims and do more searches and get the people taken care of.”
A reunification center has been established at the nearby St. Anthony’s Church.
Carlsten said a “large” natural gas leak was discovery following the collapse and water was leaking through all floors of the structure.
Rick Oswald, the city’s director of development and neighborhood, told reporters that work was being done to repair exterior brick of the building when it collapsed. He added that the owners had received permits for the project over reports of bricks falling from the building earlier in the week.
“The tenants of this building are pretty active. They’ve called the city numerous times for complaints,” he said.
Matson said he has been in contact with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds who has “offered all assistance.”
The American Red Cross of Illinois said it was assisting residences of the building find accommodations.