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

A survivor of the partially collapsed building in Davenport, Iowa, has revealed her wife had her leg amputated by rescuers trying to save her.

Lexus and Quanishia Berry were taking pictures of a crack between a wall and the bathroom doorway when the rear part of their building came down around 5pm on Sunday.

Lexus was standing on a part of the structure that didn’t collapse, but in a matter of seconds, her wife and two cats disappeared under the rubble.

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The Humane Society of Scott County announced on Tuesday night that several animals were rescued and reunited with their humans.

“We recovered 6 cats, 2 snakes, and 1 lizard, which were all the pets reported on our form that weren’t in one of the apartments where the building collapsed,” the non-profit announced on Tuesday night. “We’ve already reunited 4 cats, the 2 snakes, and the lizard with their owners, and the other two will be reunited shortly!”

Five tenants are still unaccounted for, at least two of them are believed to be trapped in the wreckage.

Jennifer Smith, whose business is located in the building, said she first heard about the explosion from her husband, who works for Mid-American Energy.

“He was on call and got called in for a building explosion downtown. We had no idea it was our building,” Ms Smith told the Quad-City Times. “It sounds bad, but we have been calling the city and giving complaints since December. Our bathroom caved in December.”

Emergency crews work the scene of a partial apartment building collapse in Davenport, Iowa

Ms Smith said water damage has been apparent since they moved into their space in the winter. Her company’s co-owner, Deonte Mack, said fire crews were in the building as recently as Thursday for an inspection.

“The tenants told us the building was going to collapse,” Ms Smith said.

The cause of the collapse has not been determined, officials said. After responding to the scene, authorities found a gas leak after the collapse and water also had leaked throughout the floors of the structure.

Rich Oswald, City of Davenport director of development and neighbourhood services, said that work was being done on the building’s exterior after reports of bricks falling from the building last week.

Davenport residents have demanded rescue teams keep searching collapsed building for survivors as the threat of demolition looms.

More than 36 hours after the rear section of a six-storey apartment complex on 324 Main Street in Iowa collapsed, Davenport mayor Mike Matson revealed that local police had been unable to locate five residents.

Two of the five have since been safely located, leaving three men – Ryan Hitchcock, Branden Colvin and Daniel Prien – still unaccounted for.

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 steel structure.

Built as a hotel, the building had more recently been used as apartments, and tenants had been allowed to remain even as bricks began falling from the building.

Mayor Mike Matson confirmed at a news conference Tuesday that not all the residents were accounted for, and officials said immediate demolition was never intended, but they did want to quickly stage the site for the tear-down. The woman’s rescue prompted officials to see if they could safely enter and ensure others weren’t inside.

“This could be a place of rest for some of the unaccounted,” Matson said. The city is trying to determine how to bring down what remains of the building while maintaining the dignity of people who may have been killed, he said.

Resident Aurea Monet had a lucky escape, moving out just eight weeks before the Davenport apartment block partially collapsed on Sunday.

Lisa Brooks’ family tell The Independent: ‘She had passed out under the couch and the only reason she woke up is because we were yelling her name.’

The cause of the collapse has not been determined but tenants had long complained about several issues with the building.