THE SCENE AT THE MEADOWS
THE NORTHRIDGE EARTHQUAKE
The large, continuous U-shaped, three-story Northridge Meadows Apartments complex contained more than 160 units of Type-V, wood-frame construction with exterior stucco and interior gypsum board. The first floor was concrete slab on grade and consisted of apartment units mixed with “tuck-under” carports, supported by three-inch-diameter steel pipe columns. The carports created “open” areas, resulting in a condition commonly known as a “soft” first floor. Similar buildings in the Marina District of San Francisco suffered major collapse during the Loma Prieta Earthquake. Of significance at the Meadows was a total absence of plywood shear panels, required by current building codes in Los Angeles.
The Meadows complex collapsed by “racking” to the north as the east and west lateral supports disintegrated; the walls running perpendicular to the east and w est walls hinged at the base and top. The top two floors moved eight feet to the north and then crushed the first level. Throughout the complex, the secondfloor joists rested on beds, dressers, washing machines, parked cars, and other solid objects. In some places, the second floor was flush wdth the ground; in others, there were oneto two-foot voids. Many victims were killed outright; others were trapped in various predicaments.
First-arriving L.A. City Fire Department units at the Meadows were confronted with darkness, aftershocks, gas leaks, electrical hazards, hundreds of frantic citizens, and dozens of trapped victims inside the complex. So complete was the collapse of the first floor that fire units actually drove past the Meadows while completing their district damage surveys. In the darkness, they did not notice that the building should have been three stories high instead of the two stories they were looking at. Several firefighters expressed horror when they realized the magnitude of the collapse.
