I'm going to hell.... "Irish Students Among Victims in Berkeley Balcony Collapse"

...and its this board's fault. I laughed at the headline for this horrible situation:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/irish-citizens-victims-berkeley-balcony-collapse/story?id=31795725

Irish Students Among Victims in Berkeley Balcony Collapse

Jun 16, 2015, 9:42 AM ET By DAN GOOD Digital Editor/Reporter via Good Morning America

An apartment balcony collapsed in California early this morning, killing five people and injuring eight others, with Irish citizens among the victims, authorities said.

The accident was reported at 12:41 a.m., in the 2000 block of Kittredge Street in Berkeley, police said in a news release. The balcony that collapsed is located on the fourth floor.

“My heart goes out to the families and loved ones of the deceased and those who have been injured in this appalling accident,” Ireland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Charlie Flanagan said in the statement.

Those injured were taken to two area hospitals.

Authorities are working with building inspectors to figure out what caused the collapse, police said.

The apartment building is located less than two blocks from the University of California-Berkeley campus.

berkeley balconies!

Less than 2-blocks from UC Berkeley, and they still haven't figured out why it collapsed? Really?

Reminds me of an event that took place at my alma mater a few years ago:

http://www.apnewsarchive.com/1996/16-Injured-When-Apartment-Balcony-Collapses/id-12c0bee8fdf71cb630e1fc0171d97f90

" The front of the balcony broke off and crashed into a second-floor balcony, which was occupied by 20 to 25 people, police said. The second balcony also collapsed.

``They all just fell in a tangled heap of bodies, wood, alcohol containers and everything else,'' Lt. Bruce Bradbery said."

Sounds like there were too many people on the berkeley balcony at once. It's important to design a berkeley balcony to support as many occupants as can physically fit on it.

20-25 people on one balcony? What could go wrong?

Maybe all the berkeleying set up a resonant frequency. Especially if there were 20 berkleyers.

Guess they didn't learn from the UNC Chapel Hill students a few years ago.

I blame Stanford for this though, the tree that wood came from was weak on purpose. I can hear the announcer calling the play by play now, "and the students are on the field, I can't believe it, they're on the field"

It's nice to know I won't be alone down there :)

now if they could just get Bob Costas to drive a E36 M3 there to do an onsite report all would be right with the world..

In reply to turboswede:

sounds like an....well, a really exciting balcony party.

I hope the juice was worth the squeeze..... Though if it was irishes, there was redheads. I was always a sucker for a redhead.

Do Irish students use berkeley balconies more aggressively than other students?

novaderrik wrote: now if they could just get Bob Costas to drive a E36 M3 there to see if all the pixels work, all would be right with the world..

FTFY

Ironically, we’re scattered all around the world yet we’re the ones that would be yelling Berkley!!! if we were on a collapsing balcony.

SVreX wrote: Do Irish students use berkeley balconies more aggressively than other students?

Only when they are drunk.......and they think their berkeley balcony is their woman.

In reply to yamaha:

They're Irish. What do you mean, "Only when they are drunk"?

Maybe a berkeley balcony is not a substitute for a woman, but rather a place where many people all looking to berkeley together gather to berkeley. Like synchronized swimming, only naked. ...and drunk. ...with 20 other people. ...20 other Irish people. ...on a building. ...naked.

Perhaps a berkeley balcony is specially built for that purpose. Perhaps it is designed to move, to augment the experience. Maybe it's the women's fault- were they using it right? Did they read the berkeleying manual for the berkeley balcony? Did they use the manual release lever for the berkeley balcony properly? Perhaps when 20 or more Irish people berkeley in a synchronized manner on a berkeley balcony, they achieve berkeley Nirvana, assuming the berkeley balcony doesn't release from it's moorings and plummet them to their berkeleying doom.

In reply to SVreX:

Even though I'm only half-Irish, I'll drink to that!

Update: Looks like the berkeley balcony collapsed because of lousy wood:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/18/us-usa-california-collapse-idUSKBN0OY02N20150618

GameboyRMH wrote: Update: Looks like the berkeley balcony collapsed because of lousy wood:

Berkeley Balcony Collapse Caused by Excessively Moist Wood.

That's one hell of a headline.

Patty O'Furniture Tumbles Off Balcony.