DAVENPORT, Iowa — The City of Davenport has started the process of investigating the cause of the collapse at 324 Main St. on May 28., which left three men dead and one survivor with a life-altering injury.
The Chicago-based firm White Birch Group LLC and SOCOTEC Engineering were hired to conduct the investigation. "Both firms are highly regarded and have considerable experience in this type of investigation," according to an email from Sarah Ott, the city's chief strategy officer
The cause and origin report will be shared with "relevant agencies and oversight authorities" and will be shared with the public "when deemed appropriate," the email read. How long the assessment will take is not known at this time.
A report could start to answer questions about the May 28 partial collapse, including why residents remained in the 116-year-old brick, steel and concrete building despite the many warnings over many months about its integrity.
Structural engineers, masons, city inspectors and tenants all had concerns, city documents show.
One tenant noticed in April that the wall was bowing, the window frame was pulling away from the wall and the floor was uneven. Shauna Dixon messaged her leasing agent questioning if the wall was safe.
“Just asking because the floor and wall is really soft. I don’t want to fall out the side of the building one day,” she wrote.
Unsatisfied with the responses, Dixon got management to move her to another apartment building across the street. Weeks later, the bowed wall collapsed.
Several lawsuits have been filed accusing the city and building owner Andrew Wold, among others, of neglecting residents' safety.
Wold pleaded guilty Monday to a civil infraction asserting that Wold didn’t maintain safe conditions at the building, according to court documents. It carried a $300 fine plus $95 in court costs.
Also Monday, crews started to dismantle the remaining structure, prompting residents to seek to halt the demolition to preserve evidence for lawsuits.
By Wednesday, much of the building was dismantled. But completely clearing the site could take several weeks because of the risk to nearby buildings from hazardous materials like asbestos. At least one nearby building, the one Dixon moved to, was completely vacated because of those risks.
The city has also said it is investigating visits by fire and inspection officials to the building the day before the partial collapse. Fire officials visited in response to a 911 call detailing a contractor’s concern about the structure’s integrity.
City inspectors followed up later that day and determined there were no “observable signs of difficulty or bowing in the external shoring,” according to a city statement.
Watch more coverage of the collapse on News 8's YouTube channel