Berkeley tragedy: First responder describes scene

One of the first emergency service personnel to arrive at the scene of the Berkeley balcony collapse in California has compared what he saw to a scene from a movie or the aftermath of a bombing.

The first responder told The Irish Times he arrived within minutes of the fourth-floor balcony collapsing, sending 13 Irish students to the street below, killing six and injuring seven more.

“The balcony had fallen and it had landed on top of the other one and I looked down to see a pile of bodies all over the place,” he said.

“It was unreal. I started going to all the bodies close by me to see who was breathing, who was not, who was reacting. We were looking to see who was alive and give them the appropriate help as necessary.”

The responder, who asked not to be identified, said he thought he aroused about three of the students and found they could talk. “As I triaged people, I moved from one person to another,” he said.

The police and fire department personnel prioritised the students on the basis of who needed medical attention most urgently.

The man, who has dealt with many emergencies in his years working as a first responder, said he had never come across a scene of such human devastation before.

“This is something that is embedded in my brain,” he said. “In my career I have seen lots of scenes. There are a few scenes that will stay with me forever. I can think of at least two others. This is the third that will stay fresh in my mind forever. I will never forget it.”

The responder said he hoped to be able to make contact with the injured and the families of the deceased at a later date.

“I would like some kind of human touch with the relatives, at least for them to know that I was there and that I am hoping for the best for them,” he said, extending his condolences to the families.

‘Horrible scene’

Berkeley mayor Tom Bates described the tragedy at the Library Gardens student building complex at 2020 Kittredge Street as “the worst accident I have seen in my life, period.”

“It was a horrible, horrible scene,” he said.

Investigators continued to work at the scene on Thursday, assessing the broken wooden beans that once supported the balcony and taking photographs and detailed notes of what they saw.

Mr Bates said that he was still awaiting the official report on what caused the balcony to collapse but it seemed that there were problems that caused water to seep into the wood, weakening the support beams.

Once he receives the final investigation report from the city’s building safety department, he said that he would consider further actions then. This includes the possibility of advising Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley to prosecute the company that built the balconies if they discovered that shoddy workmanship is to blame.

“There is no way it shouldn’t have been designed in a way to cover the weight of the students, so there is a question of design,” he said.

“There is a question of whether it is shoddy workmanship, was it an appropriate kind of wood, was it wood rot, were there other factors that we are not aware of that could have caused this problem?”

“We need to just take a deep breathe and say we are going to find out soon and once we do we will pursue whatever appropriate action is called for.”

He stressed that it was too early to say for definite what caused the accident and what the next steps would be.

“It is all a cauldron that is bubbling and we are trying to figure out what the right thing to do is,” he said.

The seven Irish J-1 students injured in Tuesday’s accidents, including two critically, were yesterday still being treated in three hospitals in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The mayor said that the City of Berkeley authorities stood ready to assist the Irish families in whatever way possible to help them repatriate the bodies of their loves ones to Ireland. “I would hope that whatever can be done to expedite their desires would be taken into account,” he said.

Minister for the Diaspora Jimmy Deenihan was due to arrive into San Francisco on Thursday afternoon to help with the efforts.

A joint funeral will be held for two of the deceased, cousins Olivia Burke, who is from Dublin, and Ashley Donohoe, in Ms Donohoe’s hometown of Rohnert Park, north of San Francisco.

An Irish-American citizen with Irish parents, Ms Donohoe will be buried in her hometown. The immediate families of the two girls will then travel back to Ireland with the remains of Ms Burke for burial.