DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Five Iowa residents remain missing, including two people whose remains may lie in a debris pile at the site of a partially collapsed apartment building, Davenport city officials said Tuesday.
Mayor Mike Matson confirmed the numbers at a news conference after criticizing the city for being too quick to demolish the building, which partially collapsed on Sunday afternoon. The 116-year-old brick and steel structure, built as a hotel, had more recently been used as apartments and tenants were allowed to stay even as the bricks began to fall off the building.
After the partial collapse, the city said it would start demolishing the building as early as Tuesday morning, but they were delayed after a woman was found Monday night.
Officials now say immediate demolition was never intended, but they wanted to quickly prepare the site for demolition. Rescuing the woman prompted officers to check if they could enter safely and make sure there were no others inside, but that would be extremely difficult when the building could collapse at any time, they said.
“This could be a place of rest for some of the missing,” Matson said. The city is trying to figure out how to demolish the remains of the building while preserving the dignity of those who may have been killed, he said.
Fire Marshal James Morris said no explosives were being used in the building, which is close to other buildings.
At the press conference, a relative of one of the missing asked for understanding that the authorities want to control the demolition without throwing more material on the rubble. “I beg our community to let the city do its job,” the woman said.
The woman said her relative did not want any more lives to be put at risk.
The building is “unstable and continues to deteriorate,” Morris said. A civil engineer says searches near the rubble should be avoided as more rubble could collapse, and officers are considering that assessment before searching inside again.
Morris said removing the debris supporting the rest of the building could result in another collapse.
“We fully understand the possibility that two people are still inside,” Morris said, fighting back tears.
On Tuesday, protesters held up signs reading “Find them first” and “Who’s in the rubble?” Some used megaphones to call out residents’ names. The building had 53 tenants in about 80 units, the police chief said.
City officials said that shortly after a center section collapsed around 5 p.m. Sunday, rescue workers escorted 12 people from the building and rescued several others, including one person who was evacuated to safety overnight Sunday.
“There was a lot of screaming, a lot of screaming, a lot of people saying ‘Help!’ when the building collapsed,” Tadd Mashovec, a resident of the building, told KCCI-TV. “But that didn’t last, and two, three minutes, and then the whole area was quiet.”
On Monday morning, fire chief Michael Carlsten said: “There are no known people trapped.”
The city then issued a statement saying a demolition order had been served on the owner Monday and proceedings would begin Tuesday morning.
The discovery Monday night of another survivor, rescued in a ladder truck from a fourth-story window, prompted the city to reassess it, they said. The woman could only be brought to safety after she jumped out of a window grille and waved to the people gathered below.
“We had no evidence from any responders that we still had any dogs or tools at the time” that anyone else was alive in the building, Morris said.
Patricia Brooks said her sister Lisa tried to leave the building but rushed back to where she felt she would have the safest protection – her bathtub. Brooks spoke to her sister as she was being examined at the hospital after being rescued from a still standing window on the side of the building.
“It was just exhausting and a nightmare,” said Patricia Brooks from Chicago about the 24 hours before Lisa’s rescue.
The family have asked police and city officials to locate Lisa at the home beginning Sunday, daughter Porshia Brooks said.
“They allegedly conducted a search and said they didn’t find anyone,” said Porshia Brooks of Moline, Illinois. “They are trying to demolish the building without cleaning it thoroughly.”
It’s unclear what caused the collapse, which left a gaping hole in the center of the former Davenport Hotel, a building listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. Built in 1907 in brick on steel and concrete, the building has been renovated into a mixed-use residential/commercial building.
Work was being carried out on the exterior facade at the time of the collapse, said Rich Oswald, the city’s director of development and neighborhood services. Reports of falling bricks were part of that work, and the building’s owner had permission for the project, Oswald said.
The firefighter said Tuesday the owner also hired a civil engineer who determined the building was safe enough to remain occupied while the repairs were being carried out.
Gov. Kim Reynolds issued a disaster declaration activating the Iowa Individual Assistance Grant Program and the Disaster Case Management Program for the homeless residents. After the demolition was ordered, residents were not allowed to go back inside to collect their belongings due to the instability.
Authorities confirmed that local residents had complained about unmet maintenance issues. The Quad-City Times reported that nearly 20 permits were filed in 2022, mostly for plumbing or electrical issues, according to the county surveyor’s office.
The collapse didn’t surprise former resident Schlaan Murray, who told The Associated Press his year-long stay there had been “a nightmare”.
Murray, 46, moved into his apartment in February 2022 and almost immediately had problems with heating, air conditioning and bathroom plumbing. Calls to the management company were rarely answered, and even when workers came by, “they didn’t fix anything, just patch it,” he said.
He wonders how the building, which he says he didn’t even want to bring his children to, passed inspections. He moved out a month before his lease expired in March and still hasn’t received his deposit, he said. Many residents are like him, he said, and despite the deplorable conditions, are having trouble paying the first and last month’s rent plus deposit.
“It was awful,” Murray said.
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Associated Press contributors include Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire and Beatrice Dupuy in New York City.
