A historic six-story apartment building in Davenport, Iowa, that partially collapsed Sunday evening will be demolished this week after a rescue effort for survivors turned Monday into a search and rescue operation, officials said.
Eight people were rescued and an unknown number injured in a collapse at 324 Main St. just before 5 p.m. CT Sunday.
Davenport Mayor Mike Mattson told NBC News Monday that K-9 units worked overnight and left the scene by Monday afternoon with no hits on people.
The city of Davenport said in a statement that the building will be demolished Tuesday morning.
Control of the property site was turned over to the Davenport Department of Development and Neighborhood Services, and the property owner was served with a notice and order to demolish the property, the city said.
“Due to the precarious condition of the property and in the interest of public safety, residents will not be allowed back into the building,” the statement said.
Photographs of the collapse show that part of the building’s red brick exterior has been destroyed, exposing steel beams and walls.
Davenport Fire Chief Mike Carlston said Sunday that the collapse may have caused a large natural gas leak and water leaking from every floor.
Seven people were rescued within hours of the collapse, while more than a dozen were helped by first responders as they left the building, Carlston said. All seven of those people were treated at the scene, indicating relatively minor injuries.
An eighth person was rescued and taken to a hospital during the overnight search, Mayor Mike Matson said Monday. He said one person had “some sort of surgery” on Monday and was in “very serious condition”.
Officials said Monday they were determining how many more people may still be unaccounted for.
“I’m praying there’s no one there,” Madson said as the dogs searched the building for six hours.
“Right now, we haven’t identified anyone else,” who could still be in the building, he said.
Some have taken to social media to plead for information on the whereabouts of loved ones who lived in the building.
Pauletta Brooks told NBC News on Monday that her grandmother, Lisa Brooks, 52, lives in the building and has been missing since the collapse.
Pauletta, who was at 324 Main Street earlier Sunday, was out with some family members when she received a call about a gas leak in the apartment around 5 p.m., and family members then called Lisa Brooks and told her to evacuate the building.
“We called her and told her to escape from the building, but the phone was disconnected. We were unable to contact her after that,” Pauletta said.
His grandmother, who moved into the complex two months ago, said she was moving out before the connection was cut.
“Now I feel like … from the looks of it the news is not good,” Pauletta said. “I knew what was coming. I feel like she’s still in the building or she’s trapped.
The cause of the collapse is still under investigation, and city structural experts will examine the building, officials said. Madsen said the building was still structurally sound as of Monday morning.
is the building Brick built over steel and concrete, According to the city’s public library.
Rich Oswald, the city’s director of development and neighborhood services, said ownership of the property had “permitting issues” with the exterior brickwork. Additionally, he said, the owners are under city orders to make specific repairs and upgrades.
He said that the recent reports of bricks falling were related to the work. The condition of the building in downtown Davenport has been the subject of complaints from several residents, officials acknowledged at a news conference.
“The tenants of this building are very active,” Oswald said. “They have called the city several times with complaints.”
Madsen addressed reports of complaints about the building: “We know of some complaints and our people go and look at those complaints and investigate them. But the owner of the facility hired an outside engineering firm to evaluate the structure and sign off on the structure.
“They are making some corrections. But in the future, we will see where this goes,” he said.
The Quad-City Times reports that the building is owned by Andrew Wold. NBC News could not immediately reach him on Monday. City documents show Companies known as the 324 Main Street Project and the Davenport Project have long planned to seek tax breaks and develop the building.
The building, in the Cork Hill district, was completed in 1907 and was home to the Davenport Hotel, the city’s finest accommodation at the time. The building is listed National Register of Historic Places.
