Ninth person rescued from wreckage of Iowa building collapse as demolition plans laid

A ninth person has reportedly been rescued from the wreckage of a building collapse in Davenport, Iowa – hours after officials claimed no one was known to be trapped and began laying plans for demolition.

The rescue of Lisa Brooks was reported by The Quad-City Times early Tuesday morning. Her family said she had been unaccounted for since a large section of the six-storey red brick apartment complex collapsed around 5pm on Sunday.

City officials acknowledged that the Davenport Police Department has yet to account for all known residents of the building in a news release Monday night.

The release did not indicate how many people are unaccounted for, but Ms Brooks is presumed to have been on the list.

Ms Brooks’ great-granddaughter Pauletta Joeanna told The Independent on Monday evening that she was still missing after she became trapped in the wreckage while she tried to escape the collapse. Ms Brooks, who lived in apartment 403, was on the phone with another relative when she suddenly hung up.

According to The Times, Ms Brooks called her daughter from the fourth floor on Monday. The family then alerted rescue crews to her location. She was brought to safety using a bucket ladder and then taken to a hospital for evaluation.

The outlet reported that the family members of two more people, Ryan Hitchcock and Brandon Colvin, fear they are still in the building.

Earlier on Monday, city officials announced that the search would transition into a recovery phase and that demolition was planned for Tuesday morning.

But in the nighttime news release, the timeline for demolition was vague.

“The building remains in imminent danger of collapse with the condition on site continuing to worsen,” it stated.

“It is the opinion of the structural engineer that the debris pile is currently contributing to the stability of the building and that removal could jeopardize or accelerate the inevitable collapse of the building. Building officials are working with Valley Construction on a plan to safely dismantle and demolish the remaining structure.”

That release came as around 150 protesters gathered at the building to insist more work be done to locate anyone who could still be trapped in the wreckage, according to The Times.

The director of Development and Neighborhood Services in Davenport, Rich Oswald, said that “the necessity to demolish this building stems specifically from our desire to maintain as much safety for the surrounding areas as possible,” according to CNN.

The back of the apartment building, known as The Davenport, detached from the rest of the building, according to Davenport Fire Chief Mike Carlsten.

The Sunday collapse led to a leak of natural gas and water which meant that emergency crews had to put their recovery efforts on hold until the leaks could be fixed, Chief Carlsten said on Monday.

Residents will not be allowed to enter the building again because of safety concerns, officials said following the collapse, which destroyed entire rooms of some residents’ homes, leaving some with no place to live and with several losing loved possessions.

Fred Voorhis, who served in the military for more than two decades, told KGAN that he lost all his memorabilia from his time in the Army as well as some of the medications he needs. He said he was sleeping at the time of the collapse.

“I opened up the door to my apartment and there was daylight. It was supposed to be a hallway,” Mr Voorhis said, adding that he doesn’t know where he’ll live now.

“There’s no backup plan,” he told the outlet.