Community Corner

Five People Hospitalized After Deck Collapses in Long Beach


This story was updated at 10:54 a.m. on 6.4.13.


Five people were injured after an outdoor deck collapsed at a Long Beach apartment building Monday evening.   

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According to the Long Beach Fire Department, the victims, ranging in ages from 9 to 55, were having a barbecue on a second-floor balcony, at 271 Shore Road, at about 8:30 p.m. when the concrete structure fell to the ground floor, approximately 12 feet below.

“It was an obvious structural failure, with five or six people on the balcony, and the weight of everyone on it led to its collapse,” LBFD Commissioner Scott Kemins told Patch.

Four people were transported to Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow and one person was taken to South Nassau Communities Hospital in Oceanside, all of them listed in stable condition. “They had mostly bumps and bruises and maybe there were some broken ribs,” Kemins said about their collective injuries.

Lt. Eric Cregeen, a spokesman for the Long Beach Police Department, said a dog was also on the balcony at the time it collapse and was trapped in the rubble but was found unharmed.
  
Richard Boodman, a Monroe Boulevard resident, said “there was an army of fire vehicles and personnel on the scene. Commissioner Kemins and his assistant worked their butts off with others making sure the adjacent balconies were properly supported.”

Kemins, who is also the city’s building commissioner, said the apartment building remains occupied, although he and his assistants blocked off all the balcony doors at the building.

“Obviously we’ll have to get an engineer and contractors there in the morning,” he said.

Cregeen said the building complex, at 261 and 271 Shore Rd., have two balconies and two terraces that are each accessible through a bedroom. “The building department declared the collapsed balcony and the balcony located in 261 Shore Road as unsafe,” Cregeen said. “The access to the two balconies and two terraces were blocked off and secured by LBFD.”

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