From: "monday, june 30, 2003" 
Newsgroups: alt.home.repair misc.consumers.frugal-living misc.consumers.house
Subject: Re: Porches are unsafe! (was: Re: Gas vs. Electric Dryer)
Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2003 22:32:45 -0700

Bob Ward wrote:

> On Tue, 01 Jul 2003 01:41:25 GMT, Jeff Cochran
> wrote:
>
>
> >On Mon, 30 Jun 2003 14:23:20 +0000 (UTC), jik@kamens.brookline.ma.us
> >(Jonathan Kamens) wrote:
> >
> >
> >>Have you heard about all these cases of people being killed
> >>when house porches collapse?  The recent incident in Chicago,
> >>in which 12 people were killed, is just the most recent
> >>example in a long string of porch accidents.  Obviously,
> >>porches are unsafe and anyone with common sense wouldn't have
> >>one in his house!
> >
> >Facetious, but a ring of truth in some cases.  My question is how at
> >least 69 people (12 dead, 57 injured) fit on the porch in question.
> >Assuming an average 120 pounds (probably low) per person, that's over
> >four tons.  Even as dead weight, that's a fair load, not to mention
> >movement.  Nobody would think of parking two compact cars on that
> >porch and expect it to stand up.
> >
> >Jeff
>
>
>
> Actually, you can reduce your theoretical load by a bit -
> http://www.news8austin.com/content/headlines/?ArID=76228&SecID=2
> Chicago -- Officials in Chicago say it appears most of the people who
> died in a fatal porch collapse were crushed on porches below.
>
> A dozen people were killed in the early morning collapse and as many
> as 45 others hurt, some critically.
>
> Police say as many as 50 people may have been packed onto the wooden
> third-floor porch in the city's affluent Lincoln Park neighborhood,
> which is usually packed with young people on weekend nights.
>
> Officials say there may also have been beer kegs on the porch.
>
> One woman who was in the apartment's kitchen at the time says the
> party-goers were mostly friends in their early 20s. She says "the
> floor just dropped out from underneath them.''
>
>
The spamnographers summer job is repairing porches