Porch collapse

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Porch collapse or Balcony collapse is a phenomenon typically associated with older multi-story apartment buildings that have wooden porch extensions on the front or rear of the building. The collapses have a number of causes, including overloading due to excessive weight from overoccupancy (too many people) or furniture/appliances, rotted wood, soil subsidence under the porch foundation, and not being built to specifications required by modern day building codes. Many older porches were built before codes required them to be able to support a legally mandated load of so many pounds per square foot or meter.

The phenomenon is often associated with Chicago, a city with a large number of older apartment buildings with wooden porches. While not an everyday occurrence, collapses happen often enough in Chicago that city building inspectors make a point of checking porches when making inspections.

A Chicago porch collapse during a get together in the Lincoln Park neighborhood in 2003 killed 12 people. Approximately the weight of 50 people caused the porch of the 1890s vintage building to fail. [1] The disaster inspired a 2005 episode of the ER television show.