One Killed, 7 Hurt In Deck Collapse

October 15, 2004

By KOMO Staff

PIERCE COUNTY - A second-story deck collapsed Thursday night during a party at a private home, killing one man and injuring seven other people.

The collapse dropped more than a dozen people 12 feet to the ground, witnesses said.

The Pierce County medical examiner confirmed that one of the men injured in the collapse died at the hospital early Friday morning.

As many as 16 people were on the deck at a going-away party for a Navy recruit.

The cause of the collapse wasn't immediately known, said Marv Cole of the University Place Fire Department.

"At this point the scary part is this looks a lot like the incident we had a PLU (three years ago) when the deck came off the house and the deck was not secured to the house very well at all," said Pierce County Sheriff detective Ed Troyer.

"There were just some nails holding it there when it should have been bolted to the house," Troyer added. "The homeowner had a contractor do the work, it wasn't a homeowner job, this is a nice deck that shouldn't have been built the way it was. It came off the wall because it was not secured to the house."

No one was standing under the deck when it gave way.