Crime & Justice

Embattled Inspector Resigns After Apartment Building Collapse in Iowa

CLUSTERF*CK

Three people are feared to be trapped inside the rubble of the partially collapsed building.

The chief building inspector in the City of Davenport in Iowa resigned this week, days after an apartment building collapsed.
Reuters

The chief building inspector in Davenport, Iowa, resigned this week amid backlash for potential failures that preceded an apartment building’s partial collapse on Sunday. The ill-fated building passed a city inspection by Trishna Pradhan in March, despite a private contractor warning a month prior that the building wasn’t structurally sound and that “somebody is going to die” if work wasn’t done. “Site is secure,” Pradhan wrote on the inspection, the Quad-City Times reported. Mayor Mike Matson said in a Thursday press conference that Pradhan stepped down on Wednesday, and the city will ramp up inspections at other structures that recently passed inspection. Three people remain missing and are feared to be dead in the rubble, officials say, as others—like Quanishia Berry, who reportedly had her leg amputated on-site—are still fighting for their lives. The missing trio was identified as Brandon Colvin, Ryan Hitchcock and Daniel Prien. The city was set to demolish the remaining structure on Tuesday morning after incorrectly saying all residents had been accounted for. That plan was later put on hold.

Read it at Quad-City Time