A contractor has said he warned the owner of the residential building that collapsed in downtown Davenport, Iowa, on Sunday that the disaster was imminent.
Speaking to The Quad-Cities Times, Ryan Shaffer, co-owner of local firm RA Masonry, said he was working on another building close to the six-storey 324 Main Street complex when he was approached by the latter property’s owner, Andrew Wold, about potential work, only for Mr Wold to walk away saying the quote was too high.
“He wanted to cut the cost by cutting out the shoring and supporting of the building," Mr Shaffer said.
“I said, ‘If we don’t do it this way exactly, I’m not putting my guys in there. Somebody is going to die.’”
Mr Wold appears to have subsequently shopped around for a cheaper firm to carry out the work and found an alternative business that would do it for less, as reflected by city records.
Two men, Ryan Hitchcock and Branden Colvin, are still believed to be trapped under the wreckage of the building, following Sunday’s partial collapse, as the city revealed plans to proceed with demolition due to the building’s brittle condition.
