3RD STORY DECK COLLAPSE

Balcony Collapse Send 2 to Hospital

A third-story apartment balcony with four men on it collapsed Friday evening in Little Canada, sending two to the hospital.

The accident happened around 7:30 p.m. in the 400 block of Labore Avenue.

The two men taken to Regions Hospital were expected to be released Friday night, said Ron Petrusson of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office.

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WCCO ACCOUNT & VIDEO

Apartment Balcony Collapses With 4 People On It

Reporting - John Lauritsen

Deck LITTLE CANADA, Minn. (WCCO) ― A night out on the balcony has landed two people in the hospital. They were hurt when the balcony they were on collapsed at Montreal Courts apartment building in Little Canada. The accident happened around 7:30 Friday night.

The third story balcony completely sheared off the wall. As it fell it ripped off part of a balcony below. Four men were on the piece that dropped. Rescuers helped two men at the scene and two others were taken to Regions Hospital.

Witnesses said the accident happened very fast. In a matter of seconds, four men who were enjoying a night on an apartment balcony fell 30 feet to the ground.

Deck "We were just sitting over there talking and we just heard like a crunching noise, when you break a stick it makes that crunch noise. And just, the whole thing just fell to the ground," said witness Stacy Hoffman.

Within hours of the balcony collapse people living in Montreal Courts received a letter from the property managers. The letter asks residents living on the second and third floors to stay off their balconies until further notice.

Jessica Ball read the letter and doesn't plan on going on her balcony any time soon, but that was a decision she made before this accident. She has lived in her Montreal Courts apartment for four years, and she said her balcony has been wobbly ever since she moved in.

Deck "I don't think it's normal, I don't think it's supposed to be like that at all. No. It's scary," said Ball.

Ball said she and her neighbors are concerned over the way balconies have been repaired in the past. In her opinion, this accident could have been prevented.

"Personally I think it was a problem waiting to happen. I think it's management's fault for not looking into it more. Obviously something happened so they needed to do something beforehand," said Ball.

Calls to the property managers were not returned. The management company did inform Montreal Courts residents that their balconies will be inspected for defects. Those inspections will begin on Monday.

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KARE 11 STORY & VIDEO

Balcony Collapse in Little Canada

The Ramsey County Sheriff's Department is looking into what caused the collapse of a balcony Friday night in Little Canada.

Four men were on the third floor of the Montreal Apartments at 401 Labore Road when the balcony fell to the ground.

Two of the men went to Regions Hospital.

The other two did not need medical assistance.

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VIDEO

STAR TRIBUNE STORY

Little Canada balcony fell with a crack and a crash

By JIM ADAMS, Star Tribune

May 17, 2008

At first, Xia Yang didn't believe his wife's urgent calls. But when he looked out the sliding-screen door of his third-floor apartment in Little Canada, his balcony was gone. So were the four friends he'd left talking there minutes earlier.

"I ran and looked out my balcony and it was gone," said Yang, 27, who had left to say goodbye to some other friends about 7:20 p.m. Friday.

The four men who'd been on the balcony lay on the ground three floors below, three of them injured. The three, who were bruised and scratched and broke some bones, were treated at Regions Hospital in St. Paul and released that night, said one of them, Bee Vang, 18.

Vang, who was resting at his St. Paul home Saturday with broken ribs and a sore shoulder, said he was talking to three pals on the balcony when they heard a loud crack.

"Everything happened so fast," he said. "The whole thing just went down. All of a sudden I was on the ground."

His stomach and face hit the lawn. The wind was knocked out of him for a few minutes and he was confused at first, unsure of what had happened.

Yang said that when he and his wife moved into the Montreal Courts apartment building about four months ago, he noticed that his and other balconies appeared to be in poor shape. By mid-Saturday, a maintenance man came and boarded up his balcony door, he said, but he hadn't heard anything from the complex's managers.

A call to Goldmark Property Management, which runs the complex, was referred to corporate offices, which didn't return a phone message Saturday.

Yang said that tenants in the apartment two floors below him run a day-care service and that children often play in the yard below his unit in the evenings.

Fortunately, no kids were there Friday night, said Yang.

"I was surprised nobody was really, really injured," he said. "I was one of the lucky ones."

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5 EYEWITNESS NEWS

Residents warned to stay off balconies after collapse

Four men were injured after a third-floor balcony collapsed in Little Canada at about 7:30 p.m. Friday evening.

The second-floor balcony also collapsed as a result of the third third-floor balcony falling.

The incident happened at the Montreal Courts Appartments located at 401 Labore Road.

Witnesses told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS they heard cracking and popping noises prior to the collapse.

Two men were transported by ambulance to Regions Hopsital in St. Paul. The two other victims suffered only minor injuries.

One woman was cut as she was trying to pull a man out of the debris.

"We heard a crunch, like when you break a stick. We looked over and the whole thing just collapsed," said witness Stacy Hoffmann.

The medical condition of the two men taken to the hospital has not been released. Ramsey County officials have not released the names of the four victims.

Residents say the apartment complex was built in the 1970s and was in need of repair.

Goldmark Property Management sent a letter to the residents of Montreal Courts and warned them to stay off their balconies until inspectors check each one for defects.

5 EYEWITNESS NEWS called the management's corporate headquarters, but they did not return our calls.

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