Termites likely caused balcony collapse that injured 3 at apartment, NC officials say
A woman had just walked out on her balcony in Greensboro, North Carolina, on Thursday to join her husband and a friend, media outlets report.
Then, suddenly, the balcony collapsed and the three fell about 10 feet from the second story to the patio below, where the woman who lived there had just gone back inside, according to WFMY.
Now officials say termite damage is to blame for the collapse, and residents of The Morehead Apartment Homes have been told not to go out on their balconies or patios until the structures can be inspected and deemed safe, according to WGHP.
“It was like a concrete iceberg,” Cheryl Rimmer, who fell during the collapse, told WFMY. “I covered my face and put my arm out and when I landed I did a 180.”
None of the three were seriously injured, WGHP reported.
“These balconies have a concrete floor inside a wooden cradle. So if the wood is compromised, you could easily have that concrete collapse to the floor and that’s what happened here,” Troy Powell, code enforcement manager, told WGHP.
Termites rotted the wood on the balcony, which then collapsed “under the weight of the concrete,” Powell told the Greensboro News & Record on Monday.
But Powell said it’s up to residents to notice potential damage, as the city doesn’t have an inspection process for balconies, according to the News & Record.
There are several signs of potential termite damage on your balcony, according to Orkin: “wood that sounds hollow when tapped,” discolored drywall, peeling paint, damaged wood, buckling floor boards, “maze-like” patterns in floor boards and wing piles or termite swarms.
The apartment complex did not comment on the collapse, according to WGHP, but Powell said there will be an engineer there Tuesday for “further inspections and possible repairs.”
Rimmer told WFMY that the complex has been accommodating but that she’s unsure whether she will renew her lease in September.
She told the News & Record she is thankful her children weren’t on the balcony at the time.
“This could be the eye opener to fix things to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” she said, according to WFMY.
