Security Grate - Philadelphia

[dik]

Authorities on Sunday were investigating how a metal security grate detached and fell from the facade of an Italian ice shop, killing a three-year-old girl in front of dozens of people who tried to rescue her.

The girl, Wynter Larkin, was with her mother at the Rita's Water Ice store in north Philadelphia where a fundraiser for a sorority and fraternity was underway Saturday when she was trapped under the falling grate, police and witnesses said.

 

[JAE]

Links:

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/06/2...ice-shop-door-falls-on-her/?intcmp=latestnews

This one with a few more photos:

http://news.yahoo.com/child-dies-italian-ice-shop-door-falls-her-004113426.html

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[JAE]

Check out this photo and the next one I post. Looks like a simple steel frame holding up a coiled overhead grating system.
It appears that the whole frame and coil box fell away from the building. The second photo I post shows a wood screw pulled away from the building near the bottom.

I hate to speculate but perhaps a few screws were used to tie into the wood facade of the building and over time the wood rotted and let the screws loose.



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[JAE]

Close up of base of frame.



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[hokie66]

The base pulled away, but the connectors at the top of the roller shutter supports were critical. Maybe there weren't any.

 

[IRstuff]

Seems like an awfully tiny screw to me.

TTFN
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[TomDOT]

Were there connectors at the top?

 

[wannabeSE]

If all of the screws were the same length as the one in the picture, they would be very difficult to install unless there was a clearance hole in the stucco before fastening to wood or other structural member. If the screws are difficult to install, it make you wonder how well the coiling door was originally fastened.