KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A 68-year-old man died and several people were injured when the front of a Family Dollar building collapsed Sunday along Broadway Boulevard in Kansas City, Missouri.
Now, city leaders are working through how the tragedy happened and how to prevent a similar incident in the future.
“I'm not prepared to make any sort of blanket statement on any policy that needs to be reviewed, but, of course, anytime a tragedy like this occurs that appears to be preventable I think that we should hold accountable property owners and business owners who threaten the lives of our citizens,” KCMO City Council Member Eric Bunch said.
Bunch was particularly concerned about the removal of a support beam at the corner of the roof overhang where the building collapsed.
A review of Google Street View images shows the column in place in an August 2015 photo, but it’s no longer visible beginning in photos dated November 2016. A car crashed into the support beam in October 2016.
“I'm not a structural engineer, but I know enough to see that that's very likely a cause; that column was taken out,” Bunch said. “... Building owners are obligated to report that to the city via the permitting process to fix that. In this case, we have no record, no permit application for structural engineering of that particular (building).”
The city may not have been informed that the damaged column was never replaced, but it was alerted on Friday afternoon that the building was “tilting,” according to a 311 complaint.
The fire department did not respond to the scene and it’s unclear if anyone from the city’s Dangerous Buildings department visited the Family Dollar location in the 50 hours between the complaint and the collapse.
KCMO Emergency Communications Coordinator Heather Frierson said no one from Dangerous Buildings was available for an interview about how and when citizens should report concerns about a structure.
She said residents can report issues to the city by calling 311 at 816-513-1313 from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, via the myKCMO mobile app, or through the city website.
“Emergency concerns should be reported to 911,” Frierson wrote via email to KSHB 41 News.
Subsequent emails with follow-up questions and document requests went unanswered, but a review of KCMO’s online dangerous-buildings database confirms that the city didn’t add the Family Dollar location until Monday.
Bunch noted that the city has robust policies in place about dangerous buildings — especially given Kansas City’s deadly history with such incidents, including the 1981 Hyatt Regency Skywalk collapse.
“We have a rapid response team to go out and look at dangerous buildings,” he said. “... The policy is in place to send out 24 hours a day, so we've got inspectors who can go out and look at dangerous buildings. We also have a policy that says that the KC Fire Department, when they see a situation like this where a vehicle is crashed into a building or something of that nature, they report that directly back to the dangerous buildings office and the Neighborhood Services Department.”
Tragedy struck despite those policies.
“Where did those break down? That's going to be a question that we've got to answer,” Bunch said. “... We don't have answers to exactly what happened here, but what we do know is that a privately-owned building collapsed onto a person, that person died, and several other people were injured, and that is unacceptable. I'm focused on making sure that doesn't happen again, but also ensuring that we've got justice for the folks who are affected by this.”
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KSHB 41 reporter Tod Palmer covers sports business and eastern Jackson County. Share your story idea with Tod.
