Iowa building collapse - latest: Davenport authorities quit rubble search for missing despite family pleas

A new alarming claim has emerged in the Iowa building collapse disaster, with a contractor revealing he warned that the Davenport structure’s instability could prove deadly in the days before it came crashing down.

Ryan Shaffer, the owner of a local masonry company, told The Quad-Cities Times that he was approached by the building’s owner Andrew Wold in February about providing work to shore up the structure - which had reportedly been the subject of many complaints from tenants in the months prior - during ongoing repairs.

Photography intern reunited with cat after collapse

Elizabeth Pruitt, an intern at The Quad-Cities Times, had moved into The Davenport less than 24 hours before its collapse. Ms Pruitt, originally from Missouri, saw the listing online, said she felt the images she saw in the online listings and on a videocall with the property management were not how the building really looked inside.

“The first thing I notice when I walk in the building is how gross it is, how unclean it is. And I don’t mean it hasn’t been cleaned in a month. It truly seems like it hasn’t been cleaned in years,” she told the Times.

Ms Pruitt, who had brought her cat Lulu in the move, left to go to Target on Sunday evening. When she returned, the rear part of her building was gone.

“I said, ‘That’s my building.’ And I just break down. I rushed to the cop that’s near me, and I’m trying to get information and he doesn’t tell me anything. He just tells me a building collapsed,” Ms Pruitt said. “I tell him, ‘That’s my apartment. My stuff’s inside. My cat’s inside.’ And he just says, ‘Well I can’t let you in. Nobody’s going in.’”

Her biggest worry was Lulu, Ms Pruitt said. And for nearly 48 hours, she anxiously waited for updates until a coworker informed her the Humane Society of Scott County had rescued her.

“All I read was, ‘We have Lulu,’ and I cried,” she said.

Ms Pruitt is receiving donations through a GoFundMe to cover her losses.

The owner of a building that collapsed earlier this week in Davenport, Iowa, is facing a $300 fine for “failing to keep the structure safe.”

Court records reviewed by The Independent on Wednesday show that Andrew Wold is listed as a defendant in a civil enforcement action brought by the City of Davenport on Tuesday, two days after Mr Wold’s six-storey building on 324 Main Street collapsed.

According to WQAD, Mr Wold now faces a $300 fine stemming from the enforcement for reportedly failing to keep the building in “safe, sanitary and structurally sound condition.”

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Experts said the structure, built in the 1900s is extremely unstable. Because of the layout of the building, with the rear brick part holding together much of the steal structure, officials said there were likely no void spaces where trapped victims could have shielded.

Authorities said its brittle condition is worsening with time and the possibility of another collapse is now imminent.

Experts have said the structure built in the 1900s is extremely unstable. Because of the layout of the building, with the rear brick part holding together much of the steel structure, officials said there were likely no void spaces where trapped victims could have taken shelter.

Authorities said its brittle condition is worsening with time and the possibility of another collapse is now imminent.

“We want to get everyone out, we want to do it right now,” Mr Morris said as he broke down in tears at Tuesday’s press conference. “So understand, it’s not that we don’t want to do this ... it’s that we have to do it in a safe manner.”

The city has been criticized by some who said it was moving too quickly toward demolishing the 116-year-old brick and steel structure after it partially collapsed, with initial plans to start the process as early as Tuesday morning.

After one woman was found alive in an apartment on Monday night, protesters showed up to the site, holding signs that said “Find Them First” and “Who is in the Rubble?” Some used a megaphone to shout out names of residents.

The building had 53 tenants in about 80 units, the police chief said.

Search efforts have been called off but at least two residents of the building complex remain unaccounted for, Andrea Blanco reports.

When permit records for an Iowa building that collapsed this past weekend were mysteriously changed after the tragedy, city officials blamed a “computer glitch”.

Skeptical members of the community aren’t convinced it was a mistake.

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