6 dead, 7 hurt in Calif. balcony collapse

Jessica Guynn and Michael Winter | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Berkeley balcony collapse kills Irish students Six people died and others are in critical condition after a fourth floor balcony collapsed near the University of California at Berkeley. Authorities said the students were attending a 21st birthday party when the balcony collapsed.

BERKELEY, Calif. — Six people died and seven others were seriously injured when a fourth-floor balcony collapsed during a party at an apartment building near the University of California-Berkeley early Tuesday, authorities said.

Five of the dead were Irish students on summer work-study visas. The sixth was a resident of Sonoma County.

Many of the injured suffered life-threatening wounds, said Jennifer Coats, a spokeswoman for the Berkeley Police Department.

"Today is an horrific day for those who lost loved ones," Irish Foreign Minister Charles Flanagan said in a statement. "The students and their families have been at the center of our thoughts and actions."

Irish broadcaster RTE reported there was a 21st-birthday party taking place in the apartment. The area is a popular destination for Irish students, the station said.

The dead were identified as Ashley Donohoe, 22, of Rohnert Park, Calif., and 21-year-old Irish nationals Oliva Burke, Eimeair Walsh, Eoghan Culligan, Niccolai Schuster and Lorcan Miller.

Officials would not release the names of the injured, citing privacy concerns.

The victims' families were to arrive Tuesday night, Irish Consul General Philip Grant said Tuesday at a City Hall news conference, just blocks from the tragedy.

"Our hearts are breaking, but it is so good to know that so many people stand with us," he said.

Many of the partygoers were in the United States on J-1 non-immigrant visas, which are given to those approved to participate in work- and study-based visitor programs. In all, about 700 Irish students are working around the San Francisco Bay area this summer, Grant said.

Several reportedly worked at the Fisherman's Wharf tourist mecca.

So many students come to the United States through the program that it's considered a rite of passage in Ireland, Grant said.

He described the community as "tight-knit" and said students here were likely to have known someone at the party.

"To have this happen at the start of this season is something that has left us all frozen in shock and in disbelief," Grant said.

Mayor Tom Bates said Berkeley city officials are "trying to recover … and understand what we can do to ensure that things like this don't happen in the future."

The 5-by-10-foot concrete balcony at the Library Gardens complex broke loose from the stucco building about 12:40 a.m. PT, spilling the 13 students onto the street 50 feet below and landing upside down atop the third-floor balcony. The complex, on Kittredge Street in downtown Berkeley, just a few blocks from campus, consists of two buildings with a total of 177 one- and two-bedroom apartments and street-level retail.

Berkeley officials said the building code required the balcony to hold 60 pounds per square foot, or about 3,000 pounds. That would exceed the total weight of the 13 people who were on the balcony with heavy metal railings, which detached intact from the side of the building with the concrete floor.

City inspectors ordered the property owner to immediately remove the collapsed balcony, which will be taken to a city facility for further examination. Three other balconies were red-tagged as a precaution and declared off-limits until structural assessments are completed within 48 hours, said city spokesman Matthai Chakko.

Authorities have not yet determined why the balcony collapsed, but Berkeley Police Chief Michael Meehan said there was no indication of foul play. The city said results from its investigation are expected to take several days."

Police received a noise complaint before the accident but did not respond because of reports of shots fired elsewhere in the city, Meehan said.

The police department told USA TODAY it would not release the 911 recordings "out of respect for the families of the victims." Chakko said quotes or audio clips being reported "are most likely from organizations that routinely record our police radio traffic."

Several dozen feet from where the balcony collapsed, people created a small sidewalk shrine with flowers, handwritten notes and cards and Irish cigarettes. The Irish consulate planned a wreath-laying ceremony at 5 p.m. PT.

Xueyao Song, 18, who lives on the first floor, said she was half-asleep when she heard a "really loud noise." She went outside and saw people crying and yelling and holding each other.

"It's really horrible," she told USA TODAY.

Jason Biswas, a 16-year-old Berkeley High School student who lives in the building, said his mother woke him, thinking it was an earthquake.

When the family went outside, they saw seven or eight people people face down on the ground.

"It was real. It seemed like a movie, but it wasn't. It was graphic," he said. "There was blood everywhere."

Sinead Loftus, 21, a Trinity College student here on a work-study visa, learned of the tragedy after receiving several messages asking if she was OK.

"The Irish community here is really close-knit. It's shocking. It feels like a nightmare," said Loftus, who lives a few blocks away. "We have a balcony in our building that's not unlike this building. It could have been our balcony."

The five-story complex, which was completed in 2007, is owned by a subsidiary of BlackRock, a New York money manager with $4.7 trillion in assets, as of 2012, according to investor documents.

BlackRock's $2.9 billion Granite Property Fund, which invests in apartments, offices and other commercial real estate, described Library Gardens as an apartment complex that provided "strong quarterly appreciation" for the portfolio in the three-month period ending in March 2012, a quarterly report provided to investors shows.

"We are terribly saddened by the tragic accident at Library Gardens and our hearts go out to the victims and their families," BlackRock's managing director, Brian Beades, said in a statement. "The loss of young life is truly heartbreaking and our sincerest condolences go out to all the families and communities affected by today's terrible accident."

He said that the firm is "in close contact" with the building's management company, Greystar, and that an independent structural engineer was "being dispatched to conduct a thorough review of the situation."

BlackRock serves as the investment adviser for the real estate fund, he added.

Granite Property Fund is the third-largest taxpayer in Berkeley, according to the Alameda County treasurer's office, the local news site Berkeleyside reported.

Greystar, which has managed the property since June 2014, issued a statement saying, "Our hearts go out to the families and friends of the deceased and those injured in this tragic accident."

The company said it has "taken precautionary steps to limit access to other balconies at the apartment complex" as the investigation continues.

"The safety of our residents is our highest priority and we will be working with an independent structural engineer and local authorities to determine the cause of the accident. We will share more details as we have them," Greystar said.

Greystar said it manages about 400,000 units in the Untied States and overseas.

Library Gardens describes itself on its website as "the premiere choice for convenient Berkeley apartments. Our beautifully landscaped community is located one block from the University of California, Berkeley campus, steps from the Berkeley Central Library, and a block from BART, AC Transit, shopping, restaurants and entertainment."

Sam Cacas, a resident of the Library Gardens complex, said there are often rowdy parties in the buildings.

"There is not enough security and property management," he told USA TODAY, calling the incident "an accident waiting to happen."

"A tragedy could have been prevented," Cacas added, if there had been on-site supervision.

The Irish ambassador to the United States, Anne Anderson, issued a statement offering her "heartfelt sympathy and condolence to the families, loved ones and friends of the Irish students who lost their lives."

Meanwhile, the U.S. ambassador to Ireland, Kevin O'Malley, tweeted: "Heartfelt sympathy & condolences to the families, friends & loved ones of the Irish students who lost their lives in Berkley (sic) this morning.

"My thoughts and prayers are with the families, loved ones, and friends at this difficult time."

The Irish government also opened a consular response line for concerned family and friends at (country code 353) 1 418 0200.

Contributing: Kaja Whitehouse and John Bacon