Too many students standing on top of a home near Ohio State University led to its roof collapsing

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

Too many students standing on top of a home near Ohio State University led to its roof collapsing, leaving at least 14 people hospitalized


At least fourteen people were injured and taken to nearby hospitals after a roof collapsed at a Columbus, Ohio, home near Ohio State University because too many people were standing atop the roof, according to officials.

“It appears that the roof was overloaded with students, we’ve heard numbers between 15 and 45 students on a rooftop that was not designed to have anybody on it, and it gave way,” Columbus Division of Fire Battalion Chief Steve Martin said Saturday night.

The front porch roof section of the home collapsed around 7:40 p.m. ET Saturday night, officials said.

The few people who had gotten caught under the collapsed structure were able to unpin themselves from beneath the roof with the help of other students who helped lift portions of the building from their bodies, Martin said. All of the injured transported to hospitals were in stable condition, he said.

The front porch roof is rated for weight such as expected snow accumulation in central Ohio, but not for holding the weight of people, the fire chief said.

“With the weight that it’s rated for, it’ll hold one or two people putting shingles on it or doing a job, but it’s not going to hold 45 people,” Martin said.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/too-many-students-standing-on-top-of-a-home-near-ohio-state-university-led-to-its-roof-collapsing-leaving-at-least-14-people-hospitalized/ar-AA1azWSc

[MagickMuffin]

1. I wonder how the insurance company will rule on this

I'm inclined to believe they'd decline the claim, if one is filed.

[LakeArenal]

4. I think this would fall under renter's insurance

Whoever holds the lease on the house would need to pay.

I used to be a landlord for student housing. Some listened to the advice about renter’s insurance. Many didn’t.


Most renters don’t realize if the toilet overflows, runs down four floors wrecking ceilings, floors and property, the apartment pays the damages not the owner.

It’s hard lesson to learn when you are 19.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

19. California... most large complexes require renters to buy the insurance.

[tanyev]

2. Sometimes I wonder how homo sapiens have managed to survive at all.

[Zambero]

7. One evolutionary trait might explain this

That would be the tendency of our species to rescue the very idiots who engage in incredibly stupid stunts, allowing them to survive, reproduce, and pass their stupid genes on to the next generation, etc. Sort of like natural selection in reverse.

[Tetrachloride]

3. OSHA ? Zoning law ? Party permit ?

One wonders if they will stay enrolled at the same university.

[sinkingfeeling]

5. 13th. Avenue. I used to live on 15th. right after I left OSU. All the old houses are full of

college kids.

[Maeve]

13. Hubby lived in a place like that on 12th during college in the '70s

And yeah, we went out on the roof in good weather.

[Wingus Dingus]

6. I used to do this, at my college apartment.

It was a big old divided-up foursquare with a huge porch (similar to picture), and my roommates and I lived on the second floor. All you had to do to get on the porch roof was open the living room window and climb out. Yep, sat out there to sunbathe, watch passers-by, had parties out there, all sorts of stupidity. Our slumlord never said anything.

[obamanut2012]

9. So surreal reading this post

I also lived in "a big old divided-up foursquare with a huge porch (similar to picture), and my roommates and I lived on the second floor. All you had to do to get on the porch roof was open the living room window and climb out. Yep, sat out there to sunbathe, watch passers-by, had parties out there, all sorts of stupidity. Our slumlord never said anything."

[Wingus Dingus]

10. A very common experience, apparently!

That's why I can't judge these kids, I have no room to do so.

[obamanut2012]

11. Exactly

It isn't like rape or something violent. You are young, kinda dumb in critical thinking skills ways, and enjoying your youth with friends. I'm just glad it wasn't a huge, huge tragedy.

[jcgoldie]

17. same

Rented a house junior year at University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign with 8 guys. We would sit out on the roof facing the street drinking many nights. It was an older 2 story house. Luckily we weren't in a frat and didn't have 45 friends but many nights 8 or 10 of us dumb kids up there. When we moved out the Illini hockey team rented it.

[Wingus Dingus]

18. Yeah, I never thought about the porch roof not being able to hold our weight,

it was a solid house and porch with thick columns--though I doubt we ever had more than 6-8 people out there at once. It was more an overflow area or quiet-talk spot during parties. No level place to sit or set down your drink.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

20. TV show "Friends"... there was no door to their "porch". They entered through window

[Javaman]

8. I think I found the culprit...

beer and stupidity.

[maxrandb]

12. That's Fraternity Row at Ohio State

[sinkingfeeling]

16. I think that it was next door to the Delta Theta Sigma house. OSU has a 'row' that

covers several streets.

[maxsolomon]

14. likely framed with 2x4 rafters.

and the beam/column connections were probably just nails - not like there would have been any seismic upgrades in Columbus.

it's just a porch, kids.

[Paladin]

15. Brings to mind the Texas A&M bonfire tragedy of 1999.

12 dead, 27 injured, back then.

So glad that the injuries to those Ohio State kids weren't any worse.

[pstokely]

21. and the GQP will blame woke indoctrination at OSU

nt

[madville]

22. I saw a swimming pool on the roof of a frat house

Driving through the campus here last weekend. I was shocked they had a large inflatable pool with about 10 guys in and around it on the old roof of that frat house, it didn’t collapse though surprisingly, drove by again the next day and it was still standing.

[elocs]

23. Once in my city some kids were partying on the 2nd floor

of an older building in the downtown with a business on the 1st floor when the floor caved in. I don't think anyone was seriously hurt.