SNOQUALMIE, Wash. — A man is recovering after his second-story apartment deck collapsed in Snoqualmie.
It happened at a complex off SE Newton Street on Tuesday night.
Paul Rasmussen was sitting on the deck with his two dogs eating cookies, when suddenly he says the balcony “started slipping away sideways.”
The deck fell into a storage unit below, trapping him and his dogs.
“It sounded like the house fell off,” said Tharon Kemper, who lives downstairs in the same building.
“I couldn’t feel anything from my waist down, and I couldn’t feel my left arm,” Rasmussen said. “I was bent over sideways like a taco.”
Neighbors called 911 and within an hour, the fire department had safely evacuated Rasmussen and his dogs.
The dogs walked away unscathed, while Rasmussen was taken to the hospital. He is “scraped up” and sore, but okay.
“Could’ve been a lot worse,” he said.
Fire crews said this incident was incredibly rare.
Investigators are still trying to figure out what caused the collapse, but the Fire Marshal told KIRO 7 he saw two issues immediately: there was too much weight on the deck and it’s an older building built under different building codes.
“With the deck failures that we have seen across the US, the codes have gotten more restrictive,” said John Cooper, a building official and fire marshal.
Older decks can carry significantly less weight than newer builds, Cooper said. He also noted the deck was missing an element that prevents rain and other liquids from seeping between parts which prevents the wood from rotting.
“It’s the property owners’ due diligence to do maintenance.”
City employees said there were no code violations at the property before, but they will require the landlord to hire an engineer to complete a structural review of all other decks in the complex.
“If that’s going to fall in, what else is going to fall in?” Kemper said.
Cooper said you can examine your own decks at home by looking underneath them. If you see water seeping between the ledger board and siding, that’s a red flag. You’ll want to have an engineer inspect it further.
KIRO 7 has attempted to contact the property owner, but has not been able to reach them.
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