No Injuries : Building’s 2nd Floor Collapses

Michelle Arseneault at first didn’t pay much attention to the loud creaking and rumbling sounds she heard Wednesday on the second floor of a Chatsworth office building.

She thought the noise came from a downstairs suite workers had been remodeling for several days.

Or maybe it was a small earthquake.

“Then somebody yelled ‘get out,’ and I grabbed my purse and keys and ran,” Arseneault said. Behind her, a portion of the second floor was falling to the floor below as a support beam slowly gave way.

“I got outside and looked through the window and the second floor was now the first floor,” said Arseneault, a contract coordinator for a food-service management company that rents three-quarters of the second floor.

50 Evacuated

In addition to Arseneault, firefighters evacuated about 50 other people from the building in the 21000 block of Devonshire Street. There were no reports of injuries.

The problem began soon after noon while many workers were away at lunch, Los Angeles City Fire Department Capt. Jay Wiese said. By late afternoon, a 30-foot by 40-foot section of the floor was detached from walls, and the collapse continued into the evening, Wiese said.

It was not immediately known why the beam gave way. Russell Lane, chief building inspector in the Los Angeles Building and Safety Department’s building bureau, said the collapse may have been caused by excessive weight in a second-floor storage area. Lane and Arseneault said they did not know what was being stored in the area.

Lane said no one will be allowed inside the 10-year-old building until an engineer hired by the owner submits a repair plan, which must be approved by the Building and Safety Department. The building owners, whose identity could be confirmed Wednesday, could not be reached for comment.