Balcony Collapses at Virginia Commonwealth University
A crowded second-floor apartment balcony at Virginia Commonwealth University collapsed during a party over the weekend, sending around 20 people to the hospital with broken bones and other injuries, the Commonwealth Times reports. "The stairs were wobbly and the railing at the bottom was completely loose and wobbling," said one former tenant who also was at the party. "I didn't think it would literally happen, but I was like, 'It's going to collapse.' "
In other less alarming apartment failure news, the floor at an apartment occupied by three James Madison University students and one nonstudent caved in as the four tenants were holding a birthday party this past weekend, the Breeze reports. No one in the room was injured, but the entire complex was evacuated sometime after 1 a.m. Sunday.
The deputy fire chief could not confirm how many people were at the party, just saying that there were "more than there should have been." This is not the first time the floor in an apartment has caved in at this complex. James Madison also plans to provide temporary housing for the three affected students.
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Reader Comments
deleteme
deleteme
I attended VCU for 5 years, 4 of those years I lived in a W Grace apartment w/ a decrepit balcony. I remember my roommate and I wanted to use it for entertaining or even leisure but we never risked it. Every year we requested it to be fixed and inspected but it never happened, even after the property was handed over to another management company. Considering the age and condition of many of the buildings in that area and how the land lords run their properties, this does not surprise me in the least bit.
Property Didn't Belong to VCU
My sympathies to the students that were injured - exceptionally fortunate that the injuries were not more serious - hopes for a speedy recover to the injured people.
That said - the article is misleading in that it gives the impression it happened in a university-owned apartment - c'mon USN&WR folks - get your facts together and print them explicitly - in fact it was an off-campus apartment near (not on nor owned by) the university - the balcony that collapsed was added to the old (early 1900's) house 1 or 2 owners ago without a permit or an inspection and rented to students attending the university when it collapsed.
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