(CBS) Woodridge, Ill. Fortunately, no one was hurt in a West Suburban deck collapse Friday afternoon. But a slight change in timing could have led to tragedy, as CBS 2’s West Suburban Bureau Chief Mike Puccinelli reports.
In a Woodridge luxury condo complex Friday, there was a whole lot of shaking.
“The whole building shook,” said resident Rozanne Nargie. “So I said, ‘oh my god what was that?’”
The reason was a pool deck balcony collapsed and plummeted more than 15 feet to the ground.
Joe Stalilionis heard the balcony ripping away from the building while working nearby.
“It just sounded like if you get two trucks, two freight trains opposite one another and then you heard a lot of noise afterwards,” he said.
Nargie said her husband had recently reported seeing cracks develop in the pools deck. She says building workers were on the balcony placing lounge chairs just before it failed.
“It could have been a lot worse. People could have really got hurt,” she said.
As a precautionary measure firefighters evacuated the building until experts deemed it safe for residents to return.
“We have no one hurt at this time and we know we're all accounted for. So we're happy with that,” said Lisle-Woodridge Fire Protection District Chief Jim French.
But firefighters and residents know that had the accident happened this weekend when the pool was scheduled to open lives could have been at risk.
“We were supposed to be getting in the pool tomorrow or Sunday or Monday so I think we got lucky when it collapsed,” said resident Bethany Azuma.
