Fire marshal believes age, rust contributed to Penn Hills parking lot collapse

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Structural engineers were in Penn Hills Wednesday after a parking lot collapsed on Frankstown Road.

About a dozen cars fell around 15 feet when the collapse happened.

"It slowly went boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Louder, louder and louder," said Benjamin Bair, the assistant property manager at the apartments, which are owned by Penn Hills Complex LLC. 

Bair said he immediately jumped into action, not knowing what was going to happen to the building next.

"I'm like, 'Everybody out here! We got to get out of here. We don't know if this is safe.' So, fire alarms are going off and I'm running down the steps banging on doors, just banging on doors as we go past every door, all the way down six stories out into the alleyway," Bair said.

KDKA Investigates learned the building and lot were built in 1962 and according to the Penn Hills code enforcement officer and Fire Marshal Chuck Miller, inspection records don't go back that far.

He said code enforcement doesn't do inspections or structural steel inspections as they're not structural engineers and said that would be up to the property manager.

Miller said in recent years, the property owner redecked and poured concrete on the parking lot. He said after that, the property owner abandoned the lower part of the parking garage because at one point, concrete was falling on cars.

Miller said the property owner then added a clearance barrier for cars to go under every time they entered the lot in hopes to stop bigger trucks and trailers from entering. He said the owner did that due to a weight limit hitting capacity.

Some tenants told KDKA it was only a matter of time before something like this happened and said it's a blessing no one was injured.

"We have elderly people. We have children. If you were walking there and you went down in between that, I mean, you're gonna get twisted up at that metal," Bair said.

The fire marshal said age and rust are likely factors in causing the collapse. The property owner will have to hire a structural engineer to determine the exact cause. 

Until then, the fire marshal condemned the building and plans to add a security fence to keep people out. Miller said it will be a long process and will take time before the cars can be removed.

Penn Hills Mayor Pauline Calabrese said incidents like this are low frequency but high risk and is why emergency crews in Penn Hills train for it.

"I'm very proud of how everything happened last night," Calabrese said. "It's amazing with the number of people that everyone was accounted for."

If tenants need to get back inside their apartment for their personal items, Calabrese said they need to contact the property owner.