No code violations found at San Francisco's Chase Center after death, injuries
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Inspectors say they found no code violations at the Chase Center Thursday. This comes after one person died at a Phish concert Sunday night and two others were injured.
Two inspectors with the San Francisco Department of Building Inspection were at the Chase Center Thursday after a complaint filed with DBI alleged the guardrails inside are unsafe, that the balcony guardrail is not high enough and that stairs leading to the guardrail are steep.
PREVIOUS REPORT: 1 dead, 2 hurt from separate falls inside Chase Center during Phish concert
"We had two of our most seasoned inspectors go out to the site and they found the area under investigation to be fully code compliant and we do consider the issue closed," said Patrick Hannan, Communications Director, San Francisco Department of Building Inspection.
Sunday night during a Phish Concert, the San Francisco Police Department says 47-year-old Ryan Prosser of New York died after he leapt from an elevated area of the arena and fell a significant distance. A police spokesperson says before he leapt, he did not appear to have any physical contact with any person. Police found no evidence of foul play.
Nearly an hour later, officers responded to another man who fell on a patron. SFPD says both men were taken to the hospital for non-life threatening injuries. Officers did not find evidence of any criminal violation.
Emily Guglielmo is the past president and current spokesperson for the Structural Engineers Association of Northern California.
"For a building as new as this and all that process that it takes to get, lets say a hand rail installed, the expectation would absolutely be that this would be a code compliant installation," said Guglielmo.
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After today's inspection findings were released, a spokesperson with the Chase Center emailed ABC7 News the following statement:
"The San Francisco Department of Building Inspection has completed its inspection of Chase Center and, as expected, has confirmed that the building is code-compliant and safe for occupancy and, in many cases, exceeds code requirements. Chase Center is safe and has been since the day it opened. This inspection was prompted by an anonymous complaint; there was never any indication that officials doubted the safety of the building. According to the San Francisco Fire Department, 'This is an extremely safe building that meets all codes. Chase Center does an amazing job of staffing and overstaffing medical and safety personnel and security.' We hope this expected outcome will put an end to dubious speculation and reassure the thousands of fans returning to Chase Center for NBA basketball tonight."
