Iowa apartment fire under investigation

DES MOINES, Iowa — Three residents of an Iowa apartment building that partially collapsed Sunday are still unaccounted for, police said Thursday, as city officials responded to questions about who might be responsible.

Earlier this week, authorities said five people were missing, but Davenport Police Chief Jeff Bladel said Thursday that two of them have since been accounted for and are safe. One moved out of the building a month ago and was found in Texas, and the other was found locally.

The six-story building collapsed shortly before 5 p.m. Sunday. Rescue crews pulled seven people from the building in their initial response, and escorted out 12 others who could walk on their own. Later, two more people were rescued, including a woman who was removed from a fourth-floor unit hours after authorities said they were going to begin setting up for demolition.

The city has since released documents, including structural engineering reports, that show the building’s owner was warned that parts of the building were unstable.

An engineer’s report dated just days before the collapse suggested patches in the west side of the building’s brick facade “appear ready to fall imminently” and could be a safety hazard.

The report also detailed that window openings were insecure. In one case, the openings were “bulging outward” and looked “poised to fall.” Inside the first floor, unsupported window openings help “explain why the facade is currently about to topple outward.”