(RepublicanDaily.org) – Search and rescue efforts to find and retrieve survivors from the partial collapse of a six-story apartment building in Iowa officially came to a formal end, after three more men were found deceased in the rubble. The deceased were identified as Branden Colvin, Daniel Prien, and Ryan Hitchcock.
The search for survivors of the Davenport, Iowa apartment building collapse has been compelled to press on following the discovery of a deceased male resident. Police told CBS reporters in a statement release that the remains of the deceased male resident were those of Branden Colvin, age 42, at the time of his passing.
Colvin had recovered first and was among the five people that the city of Davenport had lost contact with and feared dead following the building’s collapse. Other than Colvin, authorities suspected that Ryan Hitchcock, who is a 50-year-old resident, and Daniel Prien, a 60-year-old resident, were trapped inside. At the time of this report, Hitchcock and Prien had been found deceased in the rubble and were retrieved from the scene.
Following the safe removal of the remains of Colvin, Prien, and Hitchcock, officials reportedly called off any further search of the partially collapsed structure. Local fire department officials explained that every time a rescuer entered the structure, the remains of the building shifted, and the rescue crews were also at risk of being trapped inside along with the dead. For this reason, officials reportedly decided to call off the search as the best option to avoid further casualties.
Residents and survivors of the catastrophic structure failure that led to the apartment’s collapse stated that, in their view, the city of Davenport was not telling the public the “whole story” of the events that led to the building’s landslide. Outrage spread through Davenport when it was revealed that city officials had been warned about the possibility of a collapse months before the building caved, but failed to warn the residents.
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