THE BALCONY WHICH collapsed, killing six Irish students, may have been rotted, the mayor of the city of Berkeley has said.
Niccolai Schuster (21), Eoghan Culligan (21), Eimear Walsh (21), Olivia Burke (21), Ashley Donohoe (22) and Lorcan Miller (21) were celebrating a 21st birthday party in an apartment in the Californian city of Berkeley when the fourth-floor balcony collapsed.
Mayor Tom Bates said investigators believe the wood was not caulked and sealed properly at the time of construction and was damaged by moisture as a result.
“It appears to be a classic case of dry rot, meaning water intruded into the building (and) rotted the wood” supporting the balcony, civil and structural engineer Gene St Onge, who saw the damage, told The Los Angeles Times.
A member of the review board who approved the building of the Library Gardens complex told the San Francisco Chronicle that the balcony was meant for decoration.
It was definitely not large enough to be what the city would call an ‘open space balcony,’ where groups of people could stand outside,” said Carrie Olson, who abstained from the vote on the complex because it was “bland” and “difficult to love”.
“This was meant just to be a place where someone could stand out for bit, get a breath of fresh air. Not for something like 13 people.”
She said there are a number of balconies like the one that collapsed in the city, but it was up to authorities to make sure they are safe.
“It seems that those students were just doing what young people do, crowding onto a balcony,” she said.
But it’s up to us, not them, to make this stuff safe. That’s just what kids do. We have a responsibility, not just as citizens of Berkeley but as citizens of the world who send their children here, to make sure our structures are safe.
Vigils
In the nearby city of Oakland, a mass was held to honour the memory of those killed.
The gathering of about 300 people, which included some fellow Irish students but no relatives of the victims, heard “Amazing Grace” played on bagpipes as they mourned.
“All we can do is to pray, to love and to care for them,” Father Aidan McAleenan, originally from County Down, who had met with some of the victims, said at the mass.
There will be a joint funeral in San Francisco this week for cousins Olivia Burke and Ashley Donohoe, a dual US/Irish citizen, before Olivia’s body is returned to Ireland.
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