Deck Collapse

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/06/18/dozens-hurt-in-deck-collapse-at-montana-lodge-during-funeral.html

Easy to see where the weakest link was.

Attachment of the beam to the support post.

Wonder why all the joist hangers stayed intact, but all pulled away from the supporting joist.

Thanks Marcel . I do hope all Inspectors look close on their deck inspections .

Dozens of people were injured, some critically, after a second-story deck collapsed at a Montana lodge Saturday during a funeral, officials said.

Lake County Sheriff Don Bell told the Daily Inter Lake newspaper 32 people were hurt, 5 critically, after the deck collapsed at the Glacier Presbyterian Camp in Lake County, located about 100 miles north of Missoula.
First responders rushed adults and children to various medical facilities, while the critically injured were airlifted to hospitals.
Witnesses to the collapse told ABC FOX Montana one side of the deck was spongy, and that once it collapsed it was a domino effect.

Leslie Dillon, who told the Daily Inter Lake newspaper she was among about 50 people on the deck at the time of the collapse, said she walked away with some bruising. Dillon added many of her friends and relatives were taken away by ambulance.
The Somers/Lakeside Fire Department said the cause of the collapse is under investigation.

The crowd at the time was gathered on the deck to remember William Nickel, a longtime Flathead Valley firefighter who died in April.
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In my deck inspections about 85% needed Immediate improvement .

Worth a look at http://www.deckfailure.com/

Looks like that deck had composite decking also Roy.

Composite decking, solid weighs 3.75 #'s per sq. ft. in comparison to yellow pine at 2.52#'s or red cedar at 1.75#'s.

Makes a difference on the design.

They should have framed the deck in the opposite direction IMO.

Decades ago, I was at a party in an old house in East Dallas. Brave Combo was playing up on the third floor, and the room was stuffed full of people dancing their collective butts off. I went down to the second floor and could see it bobbing up and down in rhythm with the dancers. Had I been older and better informed, I would have sounded the alarm. Fortunately the floor held.

It makes me wonder if that deck was designed to hold a capacity load of human bodies. It appears to be part of the original construction, so if it was built in a municipality, one would think it came under IRC inspection standards.

Looks like it failed at the attachment to the corner post to me.

I almost never see an elevated deck that I would trust.

Looks like the failure occurred at the column where the gluelam support beam was inset to the column with just nails. With no lateral stability for that column, the beam pulled out.
No bolts have been used in that connection.

Decks with parallel framing is possible when engineer properly.

Another one here in West Michigan last week:

Ironically, it was a hospital that was celebrating the contributions of donors to expand the emergency room at the hospital.

You would think that the Towns or Cities would have friggin qualified people to inspect these decks when they are being built.

I have the cure for failing decks. Found this Johnson & Johnson “Deck Band Aid” yesterday on an inspection; guaranteed to hold rim boards or beams with less than 3/4 of an Inch of support. Idiots keep us employed

Like Marcel said the joist should have been going the other way to spread the load out along the wall of the lodge instead of just a single load point. Or don’t attach the deck to the home. Here in Hamilton we had a few 2nd storey decks collapse and the city no longer allows the decks attached to the home.