MEC&F Expert Engineers : NATURAL GAS EXPLOSION LIKELY CAUSED CHICAGO BUILDING COLLAPSE, CHICAGO OFFICE OF FIRE INVESTIGATION HAS DETERMINED

Thursday, November 27, 2014

NATURAL GAS EXPLOSION LIKELY CAUSED CHICAGO BUILDING COLLAPSE, CHICAGO OFFICE OF FIRE INVESTIGATION HAS DETERMINED

Natural Gas Explosion Likely Caused CHICAGO Building Collapse, CHICAGO OFFICE OF FIRE INVESTIGATION HAS DETERMINED

CHICAGO (CBS) – UPDATE – November 25, 2014. Fire investigators have determined a buildup of natural gas at an apartment building in Washington Park likely caused an explosion that leveled the building over the weekend, injuring two women who were inside.

Metropolitan wants to note that these fire or explosion determinations by fire officials are not always accurate; in the past we have seen that they are self-serving. For example, in this case, the fire department worked in concern with the gas company to make the determination of the cause of explosion. This is so convenient for the gas company to come out and say that the gas explosion was caused by the piping or equipment of the building occupant. That way, the gas company has no liability for the explosion. How nice, right?

A three-story building at 5845 S. Calumet Av. collapsed around 7 p.m. Sunday night. Firefighters rescued two women — ages 51 and 78 — as well as a dog, after sifting through the rubble.

Tuesday afternoon, Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said investigators have determined the likely cause of was a natural gas explosion.

“The Chicago Fire Department Office of Fire Investigation (OFI) has determined the most probable cause of the building collapse at 5845 Calumet was a buildup of natural gas from an appliance or customer owned piping in the lower level of the building. The resulting ignition caused the structure to fail,” Langford said in an email.

Officials at Peoples Gas assisted the Fire Department in the investigation.

The building was only a few years old when it collapsed. Neighbors who heard and saw the building come down couldn’t believe their eyes.

Angela Brooks said it sounded like a transformer blew around 7 p.m. When she looked out the window, the building was leveled. Her car was crushed by falling debris.

“My bed moved, so it was a pretty strong explosion. I immediately went to the window to look outside, because I knew it came from the northern direction,” she said. “You couldn’t see anything, because it was smoke. So after about five minutes, I looked out, and I saw, one, my car was totaled; and then, two, I saw the building next door was completely gone.”

The two neighboring buildings were temporarily evacuated after the explosion, as a precaution.

Cause of building collapse that injured 2 women under investigation

A People's Gas worker looks over the debris Monday at the site of a building collapse on the 5800 block of South Calumet Avenue in Chicago, the day after Chicago Fire Department crews rescued two people and a dog.

Chicago firefighters work at the scene where an apartment building collapsed in the 5800 block of South Calumet Avenue on Sunday evening.

Two people, dog pulled from rubble after building 'pancakes' following explosion on South Side.

'We were all freaking out. We knew people were home,' neighbor says of South Side building collapse.

Investigators are trying to figure out what caused a three-story apartment building to collapse in the Washington Park neighborhood on the South Side, injuring two women who were pulled from the rubble along with a dog.

"We're not sure if it was an explosion or just a collapse," Chief of Special Operations Michael Fox told reporters Sunday night. "As we go through it, we will have a better idea of what caused it."

Neighbors described hearing a loud explosion before the 3-year-old frame apartment building collapsed around 7 p.m. Sunday in the 5800 block of South Calumet Avenue. "The whole building is pancaked," said Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford.

Two women, ages 51 and 78, were rescued from the rubble about 20 minutes apart, fire officials said. No one else was believed to have been in the building at the time, but firefighters continued their search overnight just in case.

"We will pull it apart though just to make sure," Fox said.

Both victims were speaking when they were pulled from the debris, Fox said. The younger victim had been on the third floor, while the older woman had been on the second floor, officials said. A dog also was rescued.

The 51-year-old woman was taken in serious to critical condition to the University of Chicago Medical Center, and the 78-year-old woman was transported also in serious to critical condition to Stroger Hospital, officials said.

Crews from Peoples Gas were called to the scene and cut off natural gas to the collapsed building and the buildings on either side. The company said Monday morning that the "cause of the incident remains unknown and the investigation continues."

Neighbors said they heard what sounded like an explosion.

Angela Brooks, 40, who lives on the top floor of the building next door, said she heard a boom and looked out the window to see a thick cloud of smoke.

"It sounded like a transformer blew," Brooks said. "It moved my bed over."

One of her neighbors tried to see what he could do to help before firefighters pulled two people out. "We were all freaking out," she said. "We knew people were home."

Once Brooks learned the people inside were rescued, she began to worry about her car, which was parked in a lot in front of the building and was partially covered in rubble.

McKinley Jenkins, a neighbor across the street, said she heard a boom and saw a blue light when she looked out her apartment window. One of her other neighbors thought it was a gunshot.

"It wasn't a gunshot," Jenkins said. "The whole building went to the ground."

When she opened the front door of her building, she had to quickly close it again to keep out smoke and ashes that began to fly into her hallway.

She eventually ran out, yelling into the rubble and asking if everybody was OK.

"It could've been any one of our buildings, so I just want to make sure they're OK," Jenkins said.

Comment from a reader: If not caused by a gas explosion, one has to wonder if it was inspected by one of the Democratic Machine's patronage building inspectors. In the past, it’s been shown that no expertise or qualifications were necessary for hiring building inspectors except political work.

Metropolitan believes that an independent expert must determine the cause of the explosion. Only then we may know the probable cause of the explosion.