St. Francis Fire Department responds to apartment balcony collapse
ST. FRANCIS, Wis. (CBS 58) -- An investigation is underway after an apartment balcony collapsed in St. Francis Sunday night, Aug. 17.
St. Francis Fire Department Chief Nicholas Poplar held a press conference Sunday and said fire crews responded to the collapse near Whitnall and Kansas. Fire crews found the exterior balcony collapsed into the lower-level basement entrance of the building.
No one was injured, but four people are left without a place to live because of the collapse. One person was sheltered in place in one of the lower units due to health issues on Sunday.
"The biggest thing in something like this is making sure that we are accountable for everybody," said Chief Poplar in the press conference. "Obviously, when we have structural debris and collapse, we want to account for everyone."
Chief Poplar stated that the walls still standing have 'a slight bow to them' and that they are establishing a collapse area. After doing a structure assessment they determined that there is no immediate danger at this time.
The chief stated that the apartment is a 24-unit building and everyone else can stay in the building apart from the four unit involved in the collapse. The Red Cross has been notified.
Property managers say they were planning to make repairs to the balcony.
"We found that the two brick walls that were behind me still standing still have a slight mold to them, so we are established a collapse area, we have corporation with the property rep, the property maintenance person, they do have plans to rectify this," said Palasz.
On Monday, many neighbors drove past the apartment building to check out the damage.
“We were over at a friend's house down the street. We biked over there because we heard that a building collapsed and we kind of wanted to see what it looks like. The whole balcony was down and there was a bunch of fire trucks and police cars around it," said Shawn Palasz, who saw the aftermath of the balcony collapse.
The chief said they inspect the buildings twice a year and that this is an active investigation.