Video shows clubhouse floor collapsing during party, injuring dozens

The floor gave way at an apartment clubhouse in South Carolina just after midnight on Saturday, leaving dozens of university students and residents injured. Celebritist reports this to raise awareness for greater safety consciousness. 

A disturbing video online shows the moment a group of Clemson University students and other club-goers plunged to the basement when their floor suddenly collapsed. Some scrambled for safety in panic, but it was to no avail. The partygoers close to the wall can be heard gasping in horror while filming the incident.

One witness at the scene told CNN that the floor gave signs of collapsing but "but nobody thought it was going to happen. They just kept going." And just like that, their homecoming weekend celebration turned tragic.

Police received a call at 12:30 a.m. Sunday and responded promptly. 30 people were injured in the fall and had all been taken to the hospital for treatment. Fortunately, no one was trapped in the rubble, and the injuries were not life-threatening.  

One of the injured persons, Leroy Pearson, told WYFF he was in the middle of jumping with his hands in the air when the floor gave way. He felt a falling sensation before losing consciousness, and when he came to, he saw "girls everywhere with blood all over their face.”

Another guy, Franzie Pendergrass, who was one of the 30 that ended up sprawled in the basement, described his injuries. "I got five stitches on my leg from a slash, a real bad cut after people grabbed me and jumped over the ones in there," he said.

Larissa Stone, a sophomore at Clemson University, confirmed that the apartment was packed with too many people. She arrived at the party some minutes before the floor collapsed and said a favorite song was played.

"So everyone was jumping,” Stone told USA Today. “The beat was about to drop and literally the whole floor collapsed. It happened so quickly. I stood up, and everyone was trying to climb out. People are under other people. People are hurt. People are bleeding. I had blood on my sneakers. It was really bad."

The crash took place at The Woodlands of Clemson apartment complex, about three miles away from Clemson University. A top official with the school confirmed that the party was hosted by the Clemson Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity.

A similar incident occurred last year at a nightclub in the Spanish island of Tenerife. The dance-floor of a favorite nightclub collapsed, leaving 40 people injured.

BBC reported that those injured were from different countries, including Spain, France, the UK, Belgium, and Romania.

In a fatal related occurrence, 11 people lost their lives in August after a fierce storm in Genoa, Italy caused a highway bridge to collapse. A section of the bridge landed on the rooftops of nearby houses, and emergency responders described the scene as apocalyptic.