By Ayala Ben-Yehuda
The collapse of a wooden deck during a birthday party in Bayside Saturday night killed one woman and injured three others, prompting the Buildings Department to blanket the area with inspectors to check the safety of decks that may have been built by the same contractor.
The deck tore away from the back of a house at 37-11 221st St. shortly before 7 p.m., causing hysteria to quickly spread through the normally quiet street.
“The homeowner was having a birthday party and the deck just collapsed,” said Officer Anthony Lombardi of the 111th Police Precinct. He said two women were pinned in the rubble and extracted by rescue teams.
According to Finance Department records, the owner of the house is Gerson Mendoza, a chiropractor with an office in Jackson Heights. Attempts to speak to the Mendozas were unsuccessful.
North Shore Hospital spokeswoman Leslie Holleran identified the dead woman as Maria Avendano, 68. A 39-year-old woman and 9-year-old boy were treated at the hospital and released, she said. Another female victim about whom Holleran could provide no information was also brought to the hospital, but it was unclear if the woman was still a patient Tuesday.
Lombardi said the boy suffered an injury to his right hand and that one of the women, a 59-year-old, had suffered a compound fracture to her left leg. He said Avendano had died of internal injuries, but could not be more specific.
Maureen Higgins, who lives next door to the house where the collapse occurred, said she and her husband were on their deck when they heard a “big crash and people screaming.”
“We saw people falling,” said Higgins, who called 911 as her husband and three other men rushed to the deck to try to raise it off a trapped victim.
Higgins estimated there were between 10 and 15 people on the deck when it fell. She said the family told her that Mendoza’s wife was giving her husband a birthday party.
Avendano and one of the injured women were the wife’s aunts, Higgins said.
Buildings Department spokesman Sid Dinsay said a main supporting beam on the deck was nailed into the house instead of being bolted more securely. Water had seeped into the beam, causing it to rot, Dinsay said.
Dinsay said the deck had been built without a permit and the Buildings Department was searching for Steven C. Gaetano, whom neighbors identified as the deck’s builder. But concrete proof connecting Gaetano to the deck had not yet been found in the agency’s search of its records as of late Tuesday.
In response to the deck disaster, Buildings Department inspectors fanned out in an area bordered by the Cross Island Parkway, Bell Boulevard, 35th Avenue/Corbett Road and Northern Boulevard.
“Right after this happened, we heard reports from neighbors that this contractor had constructed other decks, similar decks, in the immediate vicinity,” Dinsay said. “That is why we are proactively going throughout Bayside.”
The inspectors were conducting free, no-questions-asked safety inspections over the next 30 days in the neighborhood near the deck collapse with no violations to be issued. Residents outside the door-to-door coverage area who wanted their decks inspected were urged to call 311.
Dinsay said if homeowners were not present, inspectors would leave a phone number at which they could be reached.
“We’re not going to give you a hard time about it,” Dinsay said. “We want to prevent any future tragedies.”
As for penalties, so far only Mendoza has been hit with two violations: one for work without a permit in relation to the deck and another for failure to maintain the structure.
Dinsay said Mendoza would be more likely to pay a fine on the second violation, since the first could be dismissed if he could prove the deck was built prior to his owning the house.
A neighbor said Gaetano put up the deck at 37-11 221st St. when he lived there. Finance Department records show a Lore Gaetano held the deed to the house between 1982 and 1989.
Dinsay said that if Gaetano were found to be at fault in the deck collapse, “at the very least it could involve the revocation of his privileges as an architect.”
Neighbors said Gaetano had also built five look-alike houses side by side on Corbett Road at the end of 221st Street. Dinsay said the Buildings Department was investigating. Attempts o reach the homeowners were unsuccessful.
A developer with the name Steven C. Gaetano in Ossining, N.Y. partnered with the city’s Housing Development Corp. to build a multimillion-dollar housing complex in Harlem last year.
A woman who answered the phone at the developer’s office said, “There is no one here to speak with you. I apologize,” before hanging up on a reporter.
Patrick Clark, a spokesman for Queens District Attorney Richard Brown, said that while Brown was not conducting a full investigation, “the DA’s offic*e is reviewing the facts and circumstances regarding the incident. We can’t say one way or another what’s going to happen.”
Frank Skala, president of the East Bayside Homeowners Association, said “we are supportive of the inspections as a matter of safety. This has never happened here before as far as I can remember.”
Irene Attanasio, who was in a house on 221st Street getting ready to go out on a date, said she ran out of her home right after the collapse.
“There were cops everywhere. The whole street, you couldn’t come down here.”
Irene Attanasio’s 11-year-old son, John, was surprised by the incident.
“Not many things like that happen in Bayside,” he said.
Reporter Alexander Dworkowitz contributed to this report.
Reach reporter Ayala Ben-Yehuda by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 146.
