West
Boise airport hangar collapse had unheard concerns from workers day before deadly disaster
Workers had expressed concerns about bending or bowed beams and structural issues before a steel airport hangar under construction in Idaho collapsed in January, killing three people and injuring nine others, a newspaper reported.
IDAHO BUILDING COLLAPSE ON BOISE AIRPORT PROPERTY LEAVES 3 DEAD, 9 INJURED: ‘CATASTROPHIC’
Some employees told the site’s supervisor of their worries a day before the privately owned and partially built hangar collapsed Jan. 31 on the grounds of the Boise Airport, according to police reports released to the Idaho Statesman through a public records request.
Image shows the aftermath of the deadly collapse of a hangar under construction next to the Jackson Jet Center at the Boise Airport. (Darin Oswald/Idaho Statesman/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Meridian-based contractor Big D Builders was the general contractor of the $8.1 million, 39,000-square-foot (3,623-square-meter) hangar for Jackson Jet Center at the airport.
Inland Crane of Boise provided equipment and operators for the project, and that company’s supervisor told police he “has worked a crane on several of these types of sites, and the ‘bowing’ of the beam did not look right to him.”
The supervisor told the police he had reported the concerns to Big D Builders co-founder Craig Durrant, one of three victims in the collapse, and that Durrant said he had made calls to an engineer.
Dennis Durrant, Craig’s brother and company owner, told police in an interview that the beams were “bowing.” They contacted the manufacturer because the supports for the frame weren’t “adequate,” according to the police documents.
An engineer gave them guidance to reinforce the building, Durrant told officers.
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The police interviews indicate Craig Durrant told the crane supervisor that the frame was fine after speaking to the engineer because workers added straps on the beams. They were also trying to place more beams to support the roof.
The Durrant brothers were in the center of the site when they heard loud popping noises, according to the police reports. They ran for the perimeter but Dennis Durrant told police the building “came down within seconds,” killing his brother. Also killed in the collapse were two construction workers, Mario Sontay Tzi , 32, and Mariano “Alex” Coc Och, 24.
Several Inland Crane employees also told their company’s safety officer about “structural integrity concerns” for the hangar, according to the police interviews.
“He also confirmed multiple crane operators from Inland Crane reported curved beams and snapped stiffener cables,” police wrote.
The hangar’s overhead beams were not straight, and there were not enough cross-sections to support the overhead beams, another crane operator told officers.
Yet another crane operator told police the cranes were brought to the construction site to “straighten out the hangar because portions of it were bending.”
A woman who answered the phone Wednesday at Big D Builders said owner Dennis Durrant declined to comment to The Associated Press.
However, David Stark, Big D Builders superintendent general contractor, maintained that there weren’t any problems at the site, and that he didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, the Statesman reported.
Boise police turned its information over to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which has said its investigation could take up to six months.
Inland Crane Vice President Jeremy Haener has previously said no action by Inland Crane operators or the crane itself were cause for the structure’s failure, based on the accounts of workers on the site and the steel erecting contractor.
“Inland Crane is actively participating in the OSHA investigation around the tragic incident that occurred on a Boise job site on Jan. 31,” Haener said in a statement Tuesday. “Out of respect for the integrity of that process, we have no additional statements to make until that review is completed.”
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Wyoming
Two men detained in Wyoming in connection with deadly shooting at downtown Salt Lake hotel
SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — Two men were detained in Wyoming in connection with a fatal shooting at a downtown Salt Lake hotel that killed one man.
Carlos Chee, 23, and Chino Aguilar, 21, were both wanted for first-degree felony murder after the victim, identified as Christian Lee, 32, was found dead in a room at the Springhill Suites near 600 South and 300 West.
According to warrants issued for their arrest, Chee and Aguilar met with Lee and another woman at the hotel to sell marijuana. During the alleged drug deal, Aguilar allegedly shot and killed Lee after he tried to grab at his gun.
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Investigators said they found Lee dead in the room upon arrival, as well as a single shell casing on the floor and a small amount of marijuana on the television stand.
The woman told investigators she had met Chee on a dating app and that he agreed to come to the hotel to sell her marijuana. She had been hanging out with him in the room, which Lee rented for her to use, when Lee asked them to leave. Lee was then shot and killed following a brief confrontation.
Chee and Aguilar allegedly fled the scene in a 2013 Toyota Camry with a Texas license plate that was later found outside of Rock Springs, Wyoming just a few hours later.
The two men were taken into custody and detained at the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office.
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San Francisco, CA
Santa Rosa: The 1906 earthquake almost lost to history
Santa Rosa prepares for next big earthquake
The Great 1906 earthquake devastated the Bay Area, destroying much of San Francisco and killing more than 3,000 people. The city marked the quakes 120th anniversary this weekend, but whats not as widely recognized is the damage to surrounding comunities like Santa Rosa.
SANTA ROSA, Calif. – While the Great 1906 Earthquake was a centerpiece of news around the world when its massive damage and fire destroyed much of San Francisco and took 3,000 lives, another far smaller, far less famous town, suffered massive damage almost forgotten by history.
Nearly forgotten
On this day 120 years ago, stunned people were digging for survivors two nights after the quake. Like a demon in the night, the Great 1906 Earthquake also came to Santa Rosa also bent on mass death and destruction.
Eric Stanley is the history curator and deputy director of the Museum of Sonoma County in Santa Rosa that supplied these pictures. “Santa Rosa, in particular, was devastated by the 1906 earthquake,” he said.
Survivors were shaken awake as whole buildings collapsed around them or on them. “A good portion, a really significant portion, of downtown Santa Rosa was completely destroyed,” said Stanley.
Many never woke up; crushed to death in their sleep. There were over a hundred people killed in the 1906 earthquake in Santa Rosa that only had 7,000 people in it at the time,” said the curator.
Active fault line
Sixty-three years later, in 1969, a time of budding, but far better science-based building codes, a double shaker nonetheless did significant damage and killed one person. “Even understanding all those things, you kind of at the earlier stage of that in the sixties,” said Stanley.
Today, four of Santa Rosa’s School buildings lie near or on the Rodgers Creek Earthquake Fault, capable of up to a 7.3 magnitude rupture. One is already closed with another due to close at the end of the school year for budgetary reasons.
That leaves two elementary schools, Hidden Valley, alongside the fault and Proctor, on the fault. The school board says both are seismically sound and safe to continue operating. “The two that are remaining open are both the ones that have the potential and the ability to grow because the entire site is not impacted by the fault line,” said Nick Caston, Santa Rosa City School Board president.
Staying prepared
In other words, things can and will eventually be moved around.
“What we’re gonna end up having to do is redesign the campus over the next several decades to have our fields and our parking in the front, which are totally acceptable to be over a fault line and actually move our academic builds and our student-serving buildings to the back,” said Caston.
Ultimately, the pictures and relics museums hold from natural disasters are given to those who come, a lesson and a warning. “Real people went through these experiences and we really do have to be aware of that and do our very best to prepare for those kinds of things,” said Stanley.
The 1933 Field Act requires earthquake-safe construction of schools, with evolving seismic codes as we learn more.
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