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 The victims, most of whom were working in the San Francisco Bay
area on temporary visas for the summer vacation, had been
celebrating a friend's 21st birthday on the fourth-floor balcony
when the accident occurred, according to local police and Irish
government officials.
Berkeley Police Chief Michael Meehan told a news conference about 12
hours after the collapse that there was "no indication of criminal
activity or criminal intent."
Authorities said 13 people were on the balcony when it gave way,
plunging them 40 feet (12 meters) to the street below, with some
victims landing on top of one another. Three men and three women
died, and the seven others remained hospitalized on Tuesday.
Berkeley police spokeswoman Jennifer Coats described the injuries as
"very serious and potentially life-threatening."
Pictures from the scene showed the fallen deck pancaked onto a
third-story balcony beneath it at the Library Gardens apartment
complex, about two blocks from the UC Berkeley campus across the bay
from San Francisco.
The small balcony had been rated to safely carry a maximum weight of
60 pounds per square foot, city spokesman said, adding there was no
requirement for the building owners to post its weight limits.
No one was on the third-floor balcony at the time, and no one on the
ground was hurt, police said.
Phil Grant, the San Francisco-based Irish consul for the U.S. West
Coast, said news of the accident had left citizens all over Ireland
"frozen in shock and disbelief."
"It's deeply, deeply tragic, and it touches every family in
Ireland," he said.
'APPALLING TRAGEDY'
Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny issued a statement of condolence to
victims' families, saying, "My heart breaks for the parents who lost
children this morning."
Speaking to Irish national broadcaster RTE, Irish Foreign Minister
Charlie Flanagan called the incident "an appalling tragedy ... a
party, a 21st birthday party, turning into tragedy in a moment."
The dead were identified as Ashley Donohoe, 22, the lone American in
the group, from Rohnert Park, 50 miles north of San Francisco; along
with two Irish women - Olivia Burke and Eimear Walsh, both 21; and
three Irish men - Eoghan Culligan, Niccolai Shuster, and Lorcan
Miller, all 21. The injured were not publicly identified.
The victims were among the thousands of students from Irish
universities who travel to the United States on temporary working
visas every summer before returning home to complete their studies.
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Coats said callers first reported the collapse in the downtown area
of the college town at around 12:45 a.m.
Neighbor Jason Biswas, 16, a high school student who lives in the
building, said the collapse woke up his parents.
"They thought it was an earthquake until we all looked out the
window and realized what happened," he told Reuters, adding that he
saw "a bunch of bodies on the ground, most of them not responding."
Bystanders later left flowers outside the building in memory of
those killed. Following the collapse, authorities declared all
similar balconies in the complex off-limits as a precaution.
Police and fire department personnel and others were working to
determine the casue of the collapse.
Gene St. Onge, an engineer from nearby Oakland, reviewed a picture
of the detached balcony at the request of the San Francisco
Chronicle and said inadequate waterproofing where the deck meets the
building appeared to be a factor.
"This appears to be a classic case," he said. "If the waterproofing
is substandard, rainwater can enter the building, causing dry rot,
which can destroy the wood members within a short time ... only a
few years from construction."
City spokesman Matthai Chakko said construction of the building was
completed in 2007, with a final inspection conducted in January of
that year.
(Additional reporting by Curtis Skinner and Jim Christie in San
Francisco, Padraic Halpin in Dublin and Elijah Nouvelage in
Berkeley; Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and
Sandra Maler)
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