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Rotting Wood Likely Cause Of Deadly Stairway Collapse At Folsom Apartment Complex

FOLSOM (CBS13) — Rotting wood appears to be the cause of a deadly stairway collapse at a Folsom apartment complex that took the life of a 26-year-old man visiting from San Francisco.

Folsom city officials spent the day inspecting temporary support beams installed on other stairwells at the Willow Creek Apartment Complex. They confirmed management knew there were problems that needed to be fixed.

Shunxiang Yuan, a 26-year-old visiting from the Bay Area to see a friend, died when the stairwell he was walking up gave way.

"This should not have happened," said attorney Mary Alexander, who is representing Yuan's family.

She says it's obvious the work was subpar and led to dry rot. She's frustrated to know residents reported a similar collapse without injuries a year ago. Work was started to make fixed, but not quickly enough for Yuan, she said.

"The prior collapse over a year ago, shows that the company had notice that these were defective, that these were rotting, that there wasn't enough supports, and they should have been fixed," she said.

Meanwhile, the apartment management company spent the day installing wooden support beams on other stairwells.

"We're trying to work with management out here until they get the repairs taken care of to make sure everything at least is temporarily safe until everything is taken care of," said Folsom city building official Steve Burger.

Stairs aren't subject to regular inspections by city officials, Burger said, and the dry rot would have been hard to see from a general inspection.

"We don't do periodic inspections of stairs; to do that we would have to take the siding off, the tar paper, if you did that annually first of all, how would you do that?" he said.

Residents at the complex are rethinking where they live, with one second-guessing the lease they just signed.

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