CLEVELAND — Lakewood Mayor Meghan George told 3News the exact same thing that residents of Marine Tower West and its neighboring tower have been saying for days: Construction was taking place inside the garage in the days leading up to Thursday's collapse.
George said some sort of construction took place Thursday and such work would have likely required the company to apply for a permit. George said the city has no record of a permit for work and that fact is part of the city’s investigation.
Today, 3News watched as cars were driven out of the garage. Residents said they were not allowed inside the parking facility but said the building’s management drove the cars out. George said the cars were retrieved under the supervision of structural engineers.
"It's a fairly sizable collapse, it's a pancake collapse, so the second-floor deck collapsed onto the first-floor deck, and subsequently, sections of that also came down," said Lakewood Fire Chief Tim Dunphy at the time of the collapse. "It's substantial."
LISTEN BELOW TO THE 9-1-1 CALL:
3News contacted the Burton Carol Management, which runs Marine Towers West. No one was available to take are questions but a secretary said a manager was on site at the garage.
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RELATED: Residents of Lakewood high-rise displaced by garage collapse allowed to return to apartments
Editor's note: the video in the player above is from a previously published, related story.