Six people dies at the spot and seven other persons injured
seriously on Tuesday 16th June as the fourth floor balcony crammed
with party goers celebrating a 21st birthday collapsed with a bang
near the University of California’s Berkeley Campus, as reported by the
authorities who investigated the incident.
Ireland Foreign minister said that all at least five of the
dead victims were Irish students in the country on Visas that enable young
people to work, study and travel in the United States over the summer. Irish
Prime minister Enda Kenny said that the police told him that 13 people were on
the balcony.
Fire, Police and building officials were investigating to observe what lead to the roughly
5-by-10-foot metal-railed balcony to break loose from the side of the stucco
apartment building. It collapsed downward and landed on the third floor balcony
below, splitting victims and dead bodies onto the pavement.
21-year-old Dan Sullivan, a student from Ireland who was asleep in the fight story building,
said ‘’I just heard a band and a lot of shouting’’. And also Mark Neville an
Irish student as well in the building said ‘’I walked out and saw rubble on the
street and a bunch of Irish students crying’’.
Shocking enough, Police spokesman, Officer Bryon said that the Police had gotten a complaint
about a party in the apartment causing loud noise in the entire block about an
hour before the accident but had not yet arrived when the balcony collapsed
just at about 12:30 am.
After the accident, City buildings inspectors barred use of
the balconies in the Library Garden apartment complex which is about two blocks
away from the Berkeley campus which is a popular place for students to live,
this was inspected for safety. The apartment were built in 2006, as reported by
the los Angeles Times. The Greystar management, are the managers of the complex
which did not return a car communication to them immediately. The company’s
website says they operate over 400,000units in the United States and abroad.
Irish President Michael D. Higgins sad that he ‘’heard with
the greatest sadness of the terrible loss of life of the young Irish people and
the bad injury of the others in Barkeley, California,. My heart goes out to the
families, friends and loved ones of all those involved’’. Jerry Robinson who
lives nearby says I was coming out of the cinema when two unknown people
stopped me and asked me for a ride to the hospital to check their friends who
are injured. ‘’ they were friends of the people who were on the balcony. Some
of the women did not put on shoes and on of them had blood on her knees so he
reported to the San Francisco News Station KGO-TV.
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