2 may still be inside collapsed Davenport apartment building

DAVENPORT — At least five people are unaccounted for and two are likely to be inside the apartment building that partially collapsed over the weekend in downtown Davenport, city officials said Tuesday in an emotional hourlong news conference.

Spurred by the Monday night discovery of a survivor — more than a day after the Sunday evening collapse — and by protesters calling for further searches before the building is demolished, the city conducted another sweep despite the increasingly perilous condition of the six-story structure called The Davenport.

Tuesday afternoon, the city issued an update that a rescue team had conducted a search within portions of the building "that presented an acceptable risk for emergency response entry." While several animals were rescued and delivered to the Scott County Humane Society, no "human activity" was detected.

A structural engineer hired by the city has concluded that rescuers cannot go into the debris pile without destabilizing the building, said Davenport Fire Marshal Jim Morris.

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At a morning news conference, Morris grew emotional as it became clear that earlier statements by the city that no deaths had been reported were premature.

"We're very sympathetic to the possibility that there's two people …" Morris paused, appearing to gather himself. A woman's voice broke through the quiet from outside the room, yelling that someone was still missing.

"That there's two people still left inside," Morris continued, his voice breaking.

"We want to get everybody out. And we want to do it right now," Morris continued, but said the city had to do so in a safe manner.

On Monday night, survivor Lisa Brooks was rescued more than 24 hours after the building failure. She had called her daughter from the fourth floor in a portion of the building that had not collapsed as a crowd was surveying the rubble. Her nephew alerted firefighters and police officers.

"Get her out," the crowd chanted.

Firefighters drove an engine to the north side of the building and raised a bucket ladder to the window to rescue her. She scrambled into the bucket and was lowered to the engine, and helped down by firefighters to more cheers.

By Tuesday morning, protesters worried about the impending demolition of the building pleaded for another search. “Find Them First” and “Who is in the Rubble?" their signs said. Some used a megaphone to shout out names of building residents.

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The building had 53 tenants in about 80 units, the police chief said.

City officials said rescue crews escorted 12 people from the building shortly after a middle section collapsed about 5 p.m. Sunday, and rescued nine others.

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Davenport Mayor Mike Matson said Tuesday the rescue of Brooks is a happy event, but said the city also wants to know how it's possible that search teams, canines and technical tools had missed her.

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City officials said Monday afternoon --- before the rescue — that the building was ordered for demolition and that "the property is currently being secured by a contractor on site this afternoon and demolition is expected to commence in the morning."

Tuesday, city officials said that demolition initially would include only “permitting and staging of equipment" but the timing of the work was still being evaluated.

Morris, the fire marshal, when asked if demolition plans had changed once it was clear someone was still in the building, said there were no indications of life inside the structure until Brooks was found alive.

"Absolutely, there's new information that comes up. We had no indications from any of the responders that we had — any of our tools, any of the canines at that time," Morris said. "So, at some point, we had to move forward. As this is fluid and flexible, we started moving to change once we had a new indication that there was somebody in the building. Hence the reason why we're talking with technical rescue teams and a structural engineer to figure out the safest way to do another search."

Police Chief Jeff Bladel said there is a "firm belief" that two people remain inside.

One of those people appears to be Ryan Hitchcock. His cousin, Amy Anderson, wrote her number in dust on the windshield of a parked car, asking for help finding him.

Anderson, who said she believes Hitchcock is likely under the rubble, spoke at Tuesday’s new conference, urging the public to let the city handle the situation.

"Pushing any delays is one more day that he's under there," Anderson said. "Ryan wouldn't want anyone else to put their lives at risk."

She said the city had given its word they would "treat that last area with sensitivity to the remains that are underneath and excavate them as soon as possible and recover them."

In addition to Hitchcock, family members of tenant Brandon Colvin said he didn't make it out, either.

Officials believe there are another three people that are unaccounted for. Chief Bladel said city officials are cross checking lists of tenants that may be outdated, and the city is working to contact them and determine if those three people could be in the building.

Officials emphasized the building is in imminent danger of collapsing.

The city-hired structural engineer, Larry Sandhaas with Shive Hattery, said it plans create a "complete digital 3D model" of the building using a scanning drone. The model would "assess the condition of it, assess the prospect of future collapse, and help ultimately the city to figure out the what, the where, and the why."

It wasn't clear what immediately caused the collapse, which left a gaping hole in the center of what was once the Davenport Hotel, a building listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. Built in 1907, the brick over steel and concrete structure had been renovated into a mixed-use building with residential and commercial spaces.

Work was being done on the building’s exterior at the time of the collapse, said Rich Oswald, the city’s director of development and neighborhood services. Reports of falling bricks were part of that work, and the building’s owner had a permit, Oswald said.

City officials said two inspections were done earlier this year on the building — one in January and one last week. Select Structural Engineering, a company hired by the building owner, determined it was sound enough to be worked on while people lived there, Oswald said.

Asked whether the city was satisfied with those engineering reports, Oswald said: "The chief building official was satisfied with what the engineer — requested the repairs and how the repairs were to be made."

Matson said documentation, including photos, videos, and logs from the incident would be turned over to an investigative team.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.