YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — Two weeks after a deadly blast inside a downtown Youngstown building that resulted in the death of a Chase Bank employee, residents at a nearby apartment complex are now being ordered to evacuate.
During a press conference on Tuesday, Youngstown Mayor Tito Brown announced that residents of the International Towers have three days to gather their belongings and evacuate the building.
Brown says the evacuation order comes amid a report from a structural engineer stating the building was unsafe with a recommendation that it should be evacuated.
So what is the next step? City leaders are expected to receive an evacuation plan from the owner of the building and its insurance company later in the day on Tuesday. "The onus is on them," Brown stated.
An estimated 170 people live in International Towers.
The report from Cleveland-based Barber & Hoffman, Inc. also revealed that Realty Tower (Chase Bank building), where the explosion took place, is in "imminent danger of collapse" unless modifications are made to the ground floor structure.
"The collapse of the first floor of the building has removed the horizontal support of three exterior columns on the north side of the building facade effectively changing the effective length of the columns and the slenderness ratio makes the columns suspect for collapse," explained Chuck Stasho, Youngstown deputy director of public works.
Barber & Hoffman's report recommends that the city close all buildings within a 210-foot radius of the building, including International Towers and the DoubleTree Hotel, and set a collapse hazard zone of the same distance.
"I panicked last night when all this happened," Rendy Kaufmann said of hearing the news she would have to vacate. "I don't have a place to go."
Other International Towers expressed similar fears, as well as questions as to why they were even allowed back in the building. Brown also addressed those concerns.
"We didn't have a structural report that said so (for people to evacuate)," the mayor told reporters. "We didn't have the sound understanding or sound information to deal with that."
One person was killed and seven people hospitalized as a result of the explosion that took place at around 2:45 p.m. on May 28. The blast shook the downtown Youngstown area as bricks, glass and other debris littered the sidewalk. The body of 27-year-old Chase Bank employee Akil Drake was recovered early the following morning.
An investigative team from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) was on scene following the explosion. Although the NTSB has not yet released its preliminary report, investigators have been focusing on an abandoned gas line in the basement of the building that had been cut, yet was found to still be pressurized with gas.
A crew was apparently working "to clear out old piping and other outdated infrastructure and debris from the basement and the vault area, which extends under the sidewalk adjacent to the building." That work was done ahead of a planned city project to replace the sidewalk.
According to NTSB board member Tom Chapman, the four-person crew was "unaware that one of the pipes in the vault was pressurized at the time, nor did the work crew have reason to believe that there was gas present in the pipe."
Chapman added that "no gas was smelled during the day as the crew was working in the basement," which he said indicates that there was no ongoing leak throughout the day on Tuesday.
The crew in the basement made two "initial cuts" into piping along the basement wall. Chapman stated that when a third cut was made, the crew realized that gas had been released.
"The work crew evacuated the basement, alerted the bank employees upstairs, and pulled the fire alarm," Chapman added. "The workers were instrumental in alerting residents in the upstairs apartments and they assisted in helping to evacuate residents."
According to Chapman, the explosion happened approximately six minutes after the pipe was cut.
Surveillance video from inside the building shows moments just prior to the blast, as residents hastily evacuated the scene amid the fire alarm.
21 News WFMJ contributed to this report
Previous Reporting:
- NTSB: Crew cut gas line they thought was turned off 6 minutes before deadly Youngstown building explosion
- WATCH | Video shows people escaping Youngstown building before deadly explosion
- 'This tragedy hit our community pretty hard': Youngstown officials provide update following deadly explosion at Chase Bank building
- Updates: 1 found dead after explosion at Chase Bank building in Youngstown