We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
FOUR PEOPLE HAVE been killed and 14 injured after a balcony collapsed in western France as young people were attending a housewarming party, according to local authorities and media.
Authorities in the Maine-et-Loire region said the accident occurred late yesterday when a balcony on the third floor of the recently-constructed building collapsed in the city of Angers.
They said four people were killed.
A spokesman for the city’s University Hospital said ten people injured in the accident were admitted, one of whom was in serious condition.
Another four were treated at a clinic.
The Ouest France newspaper said those on the balcony were young people attending a housewarming party.
The duty manager at the hospital, Michel Pichon, told France Info radio that all the injured “were about 20 years old, certainly students”.
BFMTV / TwitterBalcon qui s'effondre à #Angers: "Les gens étaient calmes, personne ne dansait dessus" https://t.co/VHATFsToS1 pic.twitter.com/Esr3iZskSu
— BFMTV (@BFMTV) October 16, 2016
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Rip and best wishes to injured, never know when life throws curve ball, hopefully injured make a full recovery
Another tragedy. But this time rotten wood isn’t the culprit. I can only imagine a fundamental flaw in the design or construction, something that shouldn’t happen. But we’ll wait and see. Somebody obviously f**ked up.
@Awkward Seal. It probably was faulty work, but equally it’s possible that the balcony was majorly overloaded and at the very least contributed to its collapse. Hopefully the survivors can make a full recovery.
@king Tut: The loading definitely contributed but as it was recently constructed my guess would be it wasn’t overloaded since it’s statistically unlikely it would be after such a short period. It seems more likely that a fault in the balcony was the major contributing factor. The balcony should have been designed for at least 2.5KN/m^2, which is about 3-4 people per every square metre. That doesn’t include the 1.5 factor of safety applied to live loads, the dead load factor of safety or the material factor of safety.
18 people on a balcony amounts to the weight of a small truck. Add movement and the stresses increase dramatically.
Balconies were never designed to take this type of punishment and all have a failing point.
It’s a horrific tragedy again made worse by the fact that it was so avoidable.
The investigation will reveal if there was anything substandard but its just a bad idea to have so many on such a questionable platform.
David, if a balcony can physically hold 18 people then it should be designed to easily hold that many, and then multiply the structural capacity by a factor of 1.6 to allow for movement etc
The public should not have to worry about having too many people dancing on a balcony!
Shouldn’t have to worry, but should when having a group on the platform unless they know the structural integrity of that particular balcony, as we have unfortunately learned
Let’s hope the NY times doesn’t cover the story.
Lads at some point balcony owners need to take responsibility for overloading. A house is designed to take 2 100kg people every 1m2 a nightclub dance floor is designed to take 7 100kg people every 1m2. The night club is clearly more expensive to construct. If designers designed every balcony to this code no one would be able to afford a balcony. There is a balance somewhere. Either way this balcony should have been designed to give warning before complete collapse.
There is obviously something wrong with the architectural guidelines if they only calculate for loading per m2. Surely, they have to allow for abnormal usage and conditions, like the cantilever effect of many people looking over the handrail at once. It could be shoddy work, wrong material or just poor engineering. RIP to the victims.
@Greg Blake: There is no such thing as “architectural guidelines” with respect to loading, that is solely the structural engineer’s responsibility. The loadings come from Eurocode 1: Actions on Structures and the associated national annexes, which give further localised guidance on acceptable loadings. Such loadings have been around for decades and have been revised many times over the years. They are basically derived from a statistical analysis of likely loading over the design life of a structure. This should include common dynamic loading situations. It doesn’t necessarily account for say, a large densely packed crowd jumping up and down in unison on a balcony as such a loading would be considered highly unlikely and, as Keaneland points out, constructing every balcony to take such a highly improbable load would be highly inefficient and costly. You may not like it but this is how all buildings are built.
A balcony should be designed for a live load of between 2.5-4KN/m^2 or a line load at the end of the balcony of 2-3KN/m. Leaning over is accounted for in the handrail design, as these are typically designed to withstand at least 0.5KN/m horizontally. This translates to a bending moment at the base of the handrail posts that should be added to the overall balcony cantilever bending moment.
The balcony should give warning before collapse but this is more difficult in the case of a cantilever as there is no redundancy in this type of structure.
Without knowing the size or construction method/material of the balcony it’s difficult to guess at a route cause but I think it’s more likely bad design or construction rather than overloading at this point considering the age of the balcony.
It seems shoddy building practices is not restricted to Ireland
I’ve found Sherlock Holmes.
@mickmc- seems shoddy comments are
A small balcony attached to private flat is not designed to hold 18 partying people and the fact that this one took down two others below it as it dropped will tell you how heavy it was! They must have squeezed themselves onto it. (pic on sky news). Anyhow that doesn’t matter as this moment to those who died and are injured. Hope those remaining make a full recovery.
When will the authorities ban the construction of external balconies and insist they are integrated into the buildings Ballymun style or at least support them on pillars/poles from the ground. You can see them straining all over Dublin. Its only a matter of time before we have a horrible incident here.
When will people stop counting on the authorities, and perhaps use common sense instead. 18 partying people on a balcony the size of a dinner table is asking for trouble, regardless of its age, weight rating or construction style.
@Jim Meen.: Where does it say that the 18 were on the balcony? How do you know the size of the balcony? And how big is a dining table?
rip
An image of the balcony involved.
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/french-balcony-collapse-four-dead-and-10-injured-after-balcony-collapses-during-student-party-a3370341.html
@Daniel Fontaine: Thank you for posting an article about the awful tragedy. It would appear from the report that there were 15 people on the balcony. From the photograph, it does not seem that 15 is an excessive number, given that the balcony seems quite wide (side-to-side). This was certainly an avoidable tragedy. Poor construction regulations are responsible for the needless loss of these young lives. RIP.
David Mac, Where does it say that all 18 (fatalities and injured) were on the balcony? Assumptions.
have your say