Apartment porch collapses during party; 12 people die

CHICAGO -- Natalie Brougham was standing on a crowded third-floor porch with friends when the floor dropped out from under her early Sunday, killing 12 people and injuring dozens more.

"There were people covering me. It was pitch black and people were yelling, 'I'm dying.' I was assuming I was going to die," said the 22-year-old Chicago resident who lives near the accident site and had injuries to her hip and shoulder. "I guess I got lucky and only had two or three people on top of me."

No warning

Dozens of people stood on the overloaded third-floor porch of an apartment building in the city's Lincoln Park neighborhood when it collapsed during a party about 12:30 a.m., sending people and debris to the ground. As many as 57 people were injured, authorities said.

"There was no warning," said Simon Rasin, a University of Chicago law student who attended the party, whose friend Henry Wischerath was one of those killed. "I fell through both the second and the first floor decks into the basement area in just a pile of bodies."

Authorities said the collapse of the two floors left some people trapped in a basement stairwell.

"There was chaos," Chicago fire commissioner James Joyce said of the scene that greeted the first emergency workers to arrive.

City building commissioner Norma Reyes said the city had talked with the building's owner, who was in Canada. She said the city had "no indication of any structural problems or insufficiencies with the porch," and she did not know how old the porch was.

"Thus far, there is no evidence of any criminal activity whatsoever," police superintendent Terry Hillard said.

Bloodied, covered in rubble

Partygoers inside who escaped after the collapse said they tried to rescue their friends trapped under a pile of lumber, while people poured out of their homes in the Lincoln Park neighborhood and a nearby tavern to help.

"They were bloodied and covered in rubble, their clothes were ripped. Women were looking for husbands, men were looking for wives. It was horrible," said Geraldine Schapira, 33, who lives nearby.

As curious neighbors watched workers clear the area Sunday afternoon, at least one red plastic cup was still on the railing of the third-floor porch that remained standing, serving as an eerie reminder of just how fast the floor fell. Later in the afternoon, workers tore the porch down.

Larry Langford, spokesman for the city's Office of Emergency Management and Communications, said most of the seven men and five women who died appeared to have been people who were sandwiched between the falling porch floors.

"Someone on the third-floor porch when it fell could have theoretically ridden it down and stepped off uninjured," Langford said.

Joyce said 11 people were pronounced dead at the scene.

The Cook County Medical Examiner's office later confirmed that a 12th person was dead on arrival at Advocate Illinois Medical Center.

The office released the names of all the victims Sunday. They were identified as: John Jackson, 22, of Kansas City, Mo.; Katherine Sheriff, 23, of Chicago; Eileen Lupton, 22, of Lake Forest, Ill.; Henry Wischerath, 24, of Buffalo, N.Y.; Shea Fitzgerald, 19, of Winnetka, Ill.; Muhammed Hameeduddin, 25, of Chicago; Margaret Haynie, 25, of Evansville, Ind.; Sam Farmer, 21, of Winnetka; Eric Kumpf, 30, of Hoboken, N.J.; Robert Koranda, 23, of Naperville, Ill.; and Kelly McKinnell, 26, of Barrington, Ill.; and Julie Sorkin, 25, of Glenview, Ill.

The collapse occurred at 713 W. Wrightwood Ave., in Lincoln Park, a well-to-do neighborhood just south of Wrigleyville, the area surrounding the Chicago Cubs' Wrigley Field.

Fina Cannon, a young woman who was at the party, said a large number of people had been on the third-floor porch, and others were on the second-floor porch at the same time. She said all the guests were in their early 20s, and many had graduated several years ago from New Trier High School in Chicago's northern suburbs.

Cannon told Chicago cable television station CLTV that she was in the apartment's rear kitchen, looking out at the porch when the collapse occurred.

"All of a sudden I saw all these heads going down," Cannon said. "The floor just dropped out from underneath them. They all went down in unison."

"It was simply a case of too many people in a small space," Joyce said.

Joyce issued a message of caution about safety during Chicago's annual Gay Pride Parade, which was scheduled for later Sunday in the same general neighborhood.

"It's a tragic case of overloading the back porches," he said. "We have concern over tomorrow (Sunday). We know that tomorrow is a big day in this community with the parade, and we urge everyone to use common sense and not overload the porches."

Chicago Police said as many as 40 or 50 people may have been on the porch at the time of the collapse, and that there may have been beer kegs and dancing on the porch as well.

A structural engineer conducted a preliminary examination and determined that the porch was sound, Reyes said. She said the city was unable to find a construction permit for the porch, which was built in 1998.

Officials found permits for other rehab work at the building that year, but Reyes said it was unclear whether the porch exceeded the scope of those documents.

Karen Gesiakowski of the city's Office of Emergency Management and Communications said the city had set up a hot line for family and friends of people who may have been at the party at the time of the collapse. She said those seeking information about their loved ones should call (312)-743-INFO (4636).