Mr. Bell - thank you for the in-depth explanation. I live in Davenport and many people are upset by the lack of information regarding the incident.

Very helpful, Mike. Thanks for your quick work. There are many buildings of similar vintage and construction in the Midwestern US river cities. Thanks to the rivers, there was easy barge access to brick from my home town of St. Louis, MO, where there are massive clay deposits. As you point out, although the brick walls at the bottom were about five wythes thick, only the outer wythe was made of kiln-hardened brick. The interior layers were all made of a cheaper, softer brick (we call it “inside brick”) that cannot survive exposure to weather or water. Poor maintenance over the years would literally have allowed water to melt those inside bricks, so the pockets that held the steel structural members would have begun to give way, allowing the floors to sag until the beams actually fell. I read that they were doing structural work, and if that is true then they may have failed to shore the building properly. I am sad that several people may have been lost in this collapse. Unlike the victims at CTS in Florida, this is a group of relatively low income people who will struggle to put their lives back on track.

I subscribed to you way back in the day when you made a video about the Chernobyl disaster. I again watched your video about the surfside collapse in Miami. You were the first person I thought of when I heard about this happening in Iowa, and I watched this video as soon as I saw you uploaded it. You always have a calm and scientific way of explaining the mechanisms behind these horrific events, and a compassionate tone when referring to the victims. Thank you for shedding light on these structural issues; you always emphasize how these tragedies could be avoided and you always treat these disasters with the utmost respect. Thank you for helping us understand the root cause of disaster: negligence.

I was downtown at the time of the collapse. It was VERY loud. At first we thought a truck hit the Harrison Street railroad bridge, but saw the cloud of dust toward the library. Great explanation Mr. Bell. ALSO, the comments here are not so far from the truth. Davenport is corrupt and crumbling from top to bottom.

It occurred because the slumlord did not properly fix the structure, and it does have a basement, in which had water problems and tge foundation compromised. This is an event that could’ve been prevented had the slumlord done proper repairs to the brick instead of veneering over the original brick structure with new brick aboou 3 years ago.

Very easy to understand, especially with the drone footage and pre-collapse photos. Thank you.

The city is liable for not condemning the building so they want the evidence destroyed before the investigation

The building decay is clearly evident here and I believe the city is going to face a class action lawsuit for looking the other way.

Thank you for this video, it was very informative. I live downtown; have walked past this building many times! I can’t believe City Hall is just across the street, in view of the section that collapsed and they never condemned this building. Disgusting

It's crazy seeing this first hand! I can't help but think of the people lost and the people who now have absolutely nothing. This is the perfect example of neglect. Yet the building owner recently built a 2-million modern mansion.

The state needs to get after these slumlords. They are getting away with too much.

Very interesting video. I'm a long time resident of Davenport and a historic preservation advocate. That being said, I have never been an advocate of these very old commercial buildings being converted to apartment use even though there are many in our downtown. These buildings had structural deficits from day one as pointed out in this video and you add a century+ of remodeling with potential hidden impacts to the structural integrity and additional load like HVAC units on the roof and this is a disaster waiting to happen even before you add to it the maintenance issues. I hope there are lessons learned from this locally and in depth structural evaluations are made of similar structures.

I'm a retired Chartered Civil Engineer so fully appreciate all the amazing work you show and yes tall load bearing brick walls with steel beams mixed in is not something I would make a large opening in especially at ground level!

I appreciate the point you made about style of construction--load bearing brick exterior/steel internal frame. This was not a particularly resilient building system; it requires specialized expertise to maintain. Overwhelmingly today, masonry is a superficial cladding so few tradespeople, engineers, or laypeople are experienced. There's a secondary reason there are so few of this type around today: they were originally cheap to build & built cheaply, with the understanding they would be eventually replaced. This building was likely the third or fourth redevelopment of the site over the previous 60-ish years. In 1907, they did not anticipate the abandonment of central business districts. Class conflict and conspiracy are not necessary to explain the accident.

I AM HERE AT THE BUILDING. THERE ARE 5 PEOPLE STILL MISSING. And nobody is searching for them!! Some of the family members had cell phones pinged, and two of them are definitely pinging here.

The city is jumping on demolition because their inspectors have let it slide for years.

I walk past this building regularly - sometimes on the Main St side, sometimes on the west side where the collapse occurred. Walked past those dumpsters Saturday. Freaky. Makes me think about all the unreinforced masonry buildings in this part of the country and what will happen when the New Madrid fault lets go.

Thank you Mike for sharing your knowledge

We're all screaming at the city to ACTUALLY shore up the remaining building with cranes or something and then comb through the rubble. Sitting and watching them do nothing about the rubble for days is driving us crazy. We have the army corps of engineers minutes away from us yet i haven't heard once that we've gotten their, or any real outside eyes on the ground. The city just keeps using other, possibly shady construction companies. City already blamed a computer glitch on them obviously changing the state of the building's passed inspection days before the collapse. Thank you so much for this video though because as i said, we desperately need outside engineering advice and outside lawyers for the survivors since most local lawyers have a conflict of interest in the case.

Thanks for sharing. What a nightmare.

O my god! Wow. Thats so sad to know they just did cosmetic work on the building. The owner was well aware the building was in need of repairs over the years. Falling bricks onto the sidewalk was more than enough warning years ago. They should use this video in court . 🙏🥀My heart breaks for the people still missing

Thanks for putting a video together from and engineer's point of view!

Looks like they did a real nice job putting some type of faux coating brick and bright red paint on the outside to hide all that damage tho. Amazing how it went from this 3:20 to a nice smooth tomato red color before collapsing but you can see the damage was still behind the fake crap they hid behind it 1:32. That is why they want to quickly demolish that to get rid of evidence of negligence and slum lord at play. They put all that extra weight on a already weak wall when the building needed to be condemned if they were not planning to reinforce the walls.

Thank you, Mike. I live in another city in the Midwest and I can’t help but wonder about numerous older buildings I see that might be constructed similarly-only an engineer would know. My first thought when I see a building approaching 100 years in age is that a fire could spread inside it easily but I don’t think of it collapsing!

Davenport Iowa is very corrupt. The Landlord is only being fined 300$ and 95$ in court costs. They want to demolish the building so they can get rid of the evidence. I live in the QC.

This collapse was not an accident. The collapse was 50 years in the making. Slumlords taking out as much as they can and give nothing back. And a city that looked the other way and did not care about the people. That terrible attitude is in full display right now. Why were they in such a rush to tear down the building at first? A full investigation is needed to get to the bottom of this tragedy. So that others will not have to suffer like this.

It has a basement occupied by the building's mechanicals and available tenant storage, according to persons familiar with the building. My mother retired from the City of Davenport as a branch library director. When she was a reference librarian at the main library across Main St from this building, we would occasionally meet for lunch in a sandwich shop that was in the ground level space of this building, at the corner of Main and 4th. Much of your analysis isn't far off the mark, but it suffers from a lack of access to first-hand sources and a reliance on internet OSINT.

When stuff like this happens I cant wait for you to post a video, thanks Mike

Good job! You are the first commenter I have read that explains the outmoded system of attaching the brick wall to the steel support beams. That makes the collapse much easier to understand.

Good work Mike, hope to see more info come out on this and the causes.

I truly appreciate your channel, your knowledge is always wanted.

Very nice Mike, I love it.

Great job, Mike.

Thank you Mr. Bell. Good.

Andrew Wold owned Alliance Contracting LLC, which is who did the structural repair in 2021. The structural repair passed inspection, despite the inspector noting several things that are missing and still need to be done. I remember driving down this street every day and wondering what those temporary awnings were for. I thought it was a construction project that just hadn’t started- because I hadn’t seen anyone building anything. I did hear about the falling bricks, but I have to admit, I thought that was a joke!

Thank you.

This explains a key point. I did not know the exterior brick was structural. The building should never have been approved for reuse in the 1980s. I don’t think that type of construction would have been allowed even then.

I lived in this building from April 1997 to October 1998 and at that time the building leaked water. I lived on the 6th floor on the opposite side where the collapse occurred. It was not uncommon to walk out if your apartment and walk down the hallway and find water leaking from the ceiling.

Thanks Mike

Very educational…thank you!

Thank you, this was well done.

great video! thanks!

Ty for explaining the cause and history of the building my aunt and uncle live in Iowa ft dodge my uncle used to teach at one of the colleges in that town before transferring to another one he's now retired but I'm glad they weren't there when that happened people should pay attention to the clientele of their buildings especially for safety sake and then things like that wouldn't happen in the first place

Wow, amazing animation and explanation 😳

I agree with your opinion. Additionally The modern a/c chiller on the roof should have support legs extended down to the foundation through the building. This modern equipment slightly shakes the building over time reducing structural integrity. But i do see your thoughts being correct to the cause that day.

Thanks for this information; I was very interested to know. Like the Champlain building, resistance to spending money to properly maintain and/or monitor a building can be and has been deadly. All those innocent lives ...

Thanks for the content, excellent

Excellent vid

Sad historic building in such a state of disrepair, leading to this disaster... Was born in Davenport still in the local area, I may try to go's check out the scene tomorrow night on my way to the movie.

Yes Mr. Bell, very useful info; you have done your job well. We all have our unique Missions in life...thank you very much for fulfulling yours w/your building/architecture and engineer expertise. I hope this video production you have made gives Hope to the people who lost loved ones they care about. May Yahuah The Most High God help all involved; Love and Shalome.

That shoring looks totally cheesy! You can see the drainage pipe running along the wall there, and in one Google street view, it looks as though it's not even attached at the top! That large heavy A/C roof unit is also suspect, and probably generated a lot of moisture. When they did the renovation for the apartments, I wonder if mistakes were made in regards to the duct work shafts? That 6th floor height extension to the North might have been the initial design problem way back in the day.

I feel like calling it shoddy construction is a bit off... no one involved with construction or design probably expected this building to get to over 100 years old.

Concise and to the point. The steel beams holding up the floors should have been shored up by temporary steel columns while the west wall was repaired, avoiding a structural collapse of the building. Both incompetence and neglect.

Waiting to hear the interview with the woman who moved out. Lucky she did.

Fantastic content

nice

Thanks Mr. Bell! This video is great and I would love to know more about how you are creating the animated sequences! For my video I recreated my building in the Sims 4 but I am sure there is a better way of doing it. I am here because I live in a building that could be in much danger of a similar fate. It is hard to wake up and live in such a building as this. People will ignore extremely scary damage for years and years and decades! I don't know why or how this happens but can understand it happens everywhere. I live in California. We know better and this should not be happening across the country! We have a 20 year old leak from our pool and spa into our 2 levels of garage below the pool. There is a huge brick structure in our garage that is obviously about to collapse. The plan it to get a concrete vendor to come patch up the structure which is made of concrete bricks! I know you are not supposed to paint bricks. After getting the city involved an attempt was made to stop the leak but it never truly stops. I asked how the wet constantly leaking structure can be repaired with concrete. There is rebar and rust staining everywhere. Because the leak has been happening for the long the whole floor of the garage is saturated with diagonal cracks spreading from all the support beams in a vast network of damp looking spider cracks that get more and more pronounced through the years! The HOA does not care about anything but enjoying the hot tub above which they just bought a new heater for. Whenever the jets are turned on the water leaks faster. I'd rather have a building than a hot tub. Please send prayers. That is all that is keeping our building up I think! I am not sure how much longer I will be around but have dedicated the rest of my life to promoting building safety. Decades of neglect started shortly after my building was built. as far as I can tell there has always been a pool leaking problem and a flat pool deck that does not drain also contributes greatly to the damage. I swear if you could go back in time and warn everyone I doubt you could change history.

A covered walkway to protect pedestrians from falling bricks? What the actual hell?

They had not released the footage of the building coming down. So sad in 5 seconds . With 80+ apartments they never did say how many were actually rented . Surprised they only found a few pets inside . Thankful only 3 people missing . Sad all these people won’t be able to get their belongings . Prayers to the families involved . Thanks for the information on the building .

Good analysis. You convinced me. Cheapo pays double. Most people don't want to pay for needed repairs and maintenance, which is also the case in my building. Too many cheap and greedy people, all they think about is money

Thanks for the video. The landlord Andrew Wold is a criminal.

My apt was built 2021. Balconies are literally stacked on top of each other w only a 6"x6" support in 2 outer corners. Many of these wood "supports" are cracking & litterally splitting. The cement footings have many cracks. Have reported to Management & the city (said no action needed). I am not an engineer, but this just screams danger to me. Marshalltown IA

Nice explanation. It appears to be another case where the city moved too slowly and without enough pressure. Do you think the building is so unstable that residents can't return to retrieve their belongings? While the apartments along the collapsed wall may be a risk, I'd think the remainder of the building would be safe enough for that.

STAGE 101- 2 dumpsters were already on site for "repair work" last 2 weeks.

5 people are unaccounted for, not 2. At least 2 are suspected to be in the rubble.

I am interested to follow the building permits and who/ which inspector or engineer signed off for the lack of shoring? In fact, at first glance it appears there is no shoring or secondary bracing... was the building dept aware? They should have been (obviously). All remaining thoughts and prayers to the families with lost loved ones, plus those unnecessarily displaced.

Were you guys the ones with the high tech drone flying around this afternoon? I seen it when I drove by.

The desire to tear it down so quickly really makes a case for investigating who involved knew what and who had money to gain by letting things slide with permitting and engineering.

I work on this building roughly 10 years ago when they gutted the inside dumping tons of money into it. It’s impossible to take a old dumpy building like this and try to modernize it because you end up taking so many short cut trying to make thing work

Your animations are great. How do you make them?

Absolutely Frightening: that landlord needs to be accountable for homicide. This was clearly understood as unsafe. 🇺🇲🦖☄️

Bricks were falling. Damn and nothing was done except to protect the people walking below. Crazy

You can see the wall from Google maps. Where were the city inspectors? There has been a few construction projects on this building in the past few years. Why were the inspectors blind to this safety issue?

I don't fully blame the landlord. How could this building pass inspections by the city. Why wasn't it condemned long before it got to the point of collapsing ?

What time of day did this occur?

If you go on Google street view, especially in the alley, the foundation to me, looks older than the date of construction of the hotel! They might have repurposed a foundation from a previous building on that sight when they built the Davenport. Not an uncommon occurrence back then. An old stone foundation for a building of that height and weight?

At least it held up better than building 7

If this has been a problem for over fifty years, the logical thing to do FIRST would be to go after the crooked Building Inspectors that have given this particular building a clean bill of health for so long. Regardless of that, I've worked on many buildings that are of the same type of construction... Many even older than this particular example. In over 40 years of personal experience, I've NEVER seen such catastrophic failure... Ever. I have to admit that this instance seems altogether too sudden and coincidental. Hopefully there are people with hearts and working brains in the community who aren't afraid to override the arbitrary directives and suggestions that are being handed down from the "Officials". CERTAINLY there are at least a few current and ex Military Personell in the area who are trained in Search and Rescue. CERTAINLY there are several trained Medical Professionals in the area who'd be proud to stand by and tend to whoever may survive, or to those who search and might get hurt. CERTAINLY there are plenty of "regular people" in the area who are willing to keep an eye out for imminent collapse and could immediately alert those inside that there's imminent danger. CERTAINLY there are a couple local Veterinarians who would be happy to attend to the pets inside that may still be alive. You see? We've somehow gotten totally SOFT and now stupidly rely on being TOLD what and what not to do by "Authorities"... Who by anyone with 2 brain cells left to rub together, should appear as worthless as they really are. If we're to survive as a Nation, we're going to have to grow another set of stones like we had BEFORE The Powers That Be took total control.

OK no foundation collapse. The building was over one hundred years old. The older it got the more maintenance it needs. The out-of-date building process and the owner ignoring the warning signs of failure contributed to the structural failure of the building. I think the cost of maintaining this old building had a role to play in the buildings' demise. When was the building last inspected by a third-party inspector? By third party, I mean someone that does not care if the building stands or not. Public safety should be paramount.

A citizen called 911 the day before the collapse to report the wall was "bulging". The audio is circulating online. Sorry, I don't have a link.

There are probably millions of buildings built similar to this around the country. Probably thousands in New York city. I have a feeling we are going to see more of this kind of thing unfortunately.

Sounds about right based off how it fell.

1:55: " the outer wall looks to be... 5 bricks thick" WRONG the inner, load-bearing part of that outer wall is 5 bricks thick. It was hidden by the outer, fascade, layer of bricks.

🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

I have always seen brick used as a facial structure but not a load bearing structure. And 911 call said they know about it before the event so why was anyone occupying the structure at all?

I have pics of the basement from 2019 showing the cobblestone walls and bricks, how can I reach out to you Mr. Bell?

Strange that the building had bricks on the outside supporting the steel inside. To save money, I presume.

Jeez it’s been like 4-5 days and people have computer models of the thing collapsing?

So anyway there will be patching and painting over of the brick structure in my building if I cannot get an engineer involved. It is not a very old building, 1991. But the problems seemed to have started shortly after the build was built! I hear brick work needs to breath. It looks better painted but in this case the fix was all wrong. The rest of the Davenport building still looks strong though.

It's asatonishing to me that the brick was supposed to hold up the steel structure, especially for such a large building. And it's evident from the film footage that the brickwork was very badly done.

Check out Iowa's bridges , some of the worst in the country.

what contractor hired the brikies?

There was a fire in 1939

I must remember to sell all my buildings in the USA

4:00 The collapse. From the bottom.

There's cats on the ledges!

Why hadn’t the city inspected this property? Like a bridge fell in our city and the city said the railroad company was responsible but why do these inspectors for cities even collect a paycheck?

they were working on the building. look at all the concrete inside the dumpsters. how did the wood pallet get on top? Try again.......

Mike - There is now a clip of the start of the collapse that's been posted online. The first part of the wall that collapses is right where you said it would be. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/p9R-hJaexq6rlJs.html Thank you for your analysis...

Harry Lime.