Balcony Collapse Kills Six, Cause Under Investigation
Six people are dead and seven seriously injured after a balcony collapse in downtown Berkeley, Calif. The victims, all students hailing from Ireland, attended nearby University of California, Berkeley on J1 visas. According to eyewitness reports, the students were celebrating at a birthday party in a fourth-story unit at the Library Gardens Apartments when the balcony collapsed. The balcony sheared off the side of the building and appears to have flipped over, landing atop a third-story balcony below. Four of the victims were pronounced dead at the scene, and the other two died of their injuries at local hospitals, according to police. Berkeley officials red-tagged the apartment and other nearby balconies as a precaution while building inspectors determine the cause of the collapse. Segue Construction built the nearly 10-year-old complex. Greystar manages the four-story building's 176 units.