The back porch that collapsed and killed 13 people over the weekend was wider than allowed by city code and its floor supports too thin, causing the structure to splinter and buckle under the weight of dozens of party guests, city lawyers said Wednesday in a lawsuit filed against the apartment building owner.
Building owner Philip J. Pappas, and his porch contractor, George Koutroumbis, illegally erected a three-story porch using 2-by-8-inch floor joists rather than the sturdier 2-by-10-inch joists required by city code, according to the suit filed in Cook County Housing Court.
The suit also alleged that the 11-by-21-foot porch was a foot wider than the maximum allowed under the code and exceeded a limit of 150 square feet per floor by more than 50 percent.
“I believe that the cause of these deaths was the fact that the porch was constructed in violation of the law,” Corporation Counsel Mara Georges said.
With at least 114 people packed on the three-story structure, the porch collapsed in the middle of the top level, she said, citing an expert’s opinion. “In other words, the joists broke and the porch collapsed with the load on it.”
City lawyers also cited Pappas for converting the building at 713 W. Wrightwood Ave. from five units to three in 2000, in addition to charging that the porch was built without permits in 1998. One of the units is a ground-level dry cleaner.
The city is seeking fines of up to $500 for each day since the illegal work was done, which could result in hundreds of thousands of dollars in penalties.
Pappas, who was on a canoe trip in Canada at the time of the tragedy, made his first public comment Wednesday in a written statement issued through a public relations firm.
“I would like to express my deepest sympathy to the families and friends of the deceased and those injured in this unimaginable tragedy,” he said in the statement. “My family and I are heartbroken over the loss and injury of so many fine young people.”
Pappas said he was cooperating with the city’s investigation and had hired professionals “to assist us in understanding the cause of this terrible event.”
He referred further questions to a lawyer, Michael Ficaro, who did not immediately return calls for comment Wednesday afternoon.
Back porch overlooked
Despite annual inspections of the property due to a business on the premises, Chicago building inspectors never noted the illegal construction of the back porch. The most recent inspection, in November 2002, produced only minor violations that did not involve the porch, building officials said.
Georges insisted the city had no legal culpability in the tragedy. But Ald. Edward Burke (14th) said that if it is true the porch was improperly built and the deficiencies were not caught by the city, some official must be held accountable.
“If a city inspector inspected that premise and failed to note the kinds of conditions … then it appears to me that inspector is going to have to answer,” he said.
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The responsibility exists even if the focus of the inspections may have been elsewhere, Burke asserted. However, he said he would not be surprised if inspectors had stopped short of examining the porch.
“Would the inspector have examined the back porch of the facility? I kind of doubt it. I suspect he would have gone to the commercial part of the building, and that would have been the end of it.”
Also Wednesday, Cook County State’s Atty. Richard Devine assigned First Assistant State’s Atty. Robert Milan to review the evidence in the porch collapse.
“Bob Milan is a highly experienced prosecutor who will closely examine all the evidence in this tragedy to determine initially if there is any criminal conduct, and if there is, to take the appropriate action,” Devine said Wednesday. “While the police have the obligation to investigate and gather evidence, we want to assure the public that our prosecutors will be reviewing the matter thoroughly and taking the evidence wherever it leads us.”
To date, police have said that they are conducting a death investigation and have not yet found any evidence of a crime.
City officials also defended their decision to immediately tear down the remaining sections of the porch on Sunday. Some personal injury lawyers said the removal destroyed evidence.
“If you look at other incidents where there’s been a partial collapse of a structure, the city has almost always taken immediate action to remove the remaining unstable parts,” said Jennifer Hoyle, a city Law Department spokeswoman.
Critics pointed to the preservation of the scene after February’s E2 nightclub disaster as an example. But Hoyle said E2’s disaster scene was indoors, and not part of an unstable structure.
The collapsed porch was “in the middle of two occupied residential buildings and abutting the public way,” she said. “In that circumstance the safest thing to do is remove it as quickly as possible … if two cars are involved in a wreck, we don’t leave the cars in the street until the lawyers have been able to study them.”
Hoyle said all of the debris has been preserved and was photographed extensively at the scene. The debris was initially taken to two locations–the Grand Central Area police headquarters on the Northwest Side and a second location she could not name. On Wednesday, it was moved to a hangar at O’Hare Airport, she said.
Elliot Dudnik, a University of Illinois at Chicago architecture professor, was hired to examine the debris. Dudnik declined to comment Wednesday, citing the probable litigation in the case. Georges said the professor found the 2-by-8-inch joists were inadequate to the task of supporting the required 100 pounds per square foot on an 11-foot-wide deck.
Industry standard cited
The municipal code does not directly define requirements for 2-by-10-inch joists on porches, but a chapter of the code refers to the city’s adoption of an industry standard set by the American Forest and Paper Association’s National Design Specification for Wood Construction, Hoyle said.
“These are published standards that all construction companies who work with wood construction would be well aware of,” she said.
However, several local builders said that they were unfamiliar with the industry standard referred to in the city’s lawsuit.
“It’s very arbitrary to say that all porches need to built with 2-by-10s,” said Frank Schubert, owner of Archadeck, a Chicago company. The important thing is to assure that a porch will sustain a certain load capacity, Schubert said.
Still, builders agreed that in the instance of the porch that collapsed in Lincoln Park, they would not have felt comfortable using 2-by-8-inch joists for an 11-foot-wide porch.
“My rule is 2-by-10s for any span wider than 10 feet,” said Mark Wicik, of Just Decks in Chicago.
Inspectors fan out
City inspectors began fanning out across the Lincoln Park area Sunday to perform spot-checks on porches and decks, Buildings Department spokeswoman Breelyn Pete said Wednesday.
“The reason why we decided to canvass that area was because of the high activity that was going on that weekend with the festivals and the [gay pride] parade,” Pete said. “The results of those spot-checks are that we found 47 porches showed signs of some disrepair.”
She said inspectors noted “possible design flaws” on 38 of the porches. Inspectors will return to those sites soon to do a more thorough evaluation, she said.
Seven of the porches were referred to the city’s Law Department because they were deemed “dangerous and hazardous.”
The remaining two sites were referred to the city’s administrative hearing office for minor infractions, such as peeling paint, Pete said.