Chesapeake Beach house collapses

Two people injured; neighbors tried to warn town, county of structural problems

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Click here to enlarge this photo Submitted photo Frank Leniek’s frame-only house fell on a neighbor’s home in Chesapeake Beach on May 11, trapping the neighbors under the debris. The picture shows the pitched roof, which was not approved on the original permit. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

Hudson was talking on the telephone to neighbor Terry Shaffer, who decided to try to reach him by phone over an hour after Leniek’s home collapsed and brought Hudson’s home on top of him and his wife Karen as they were watching television.

Shaffer said she was amazed that he answered the phone while he was trapped under the rubble, and said, ‘‘Oh, my God, he’s alive.” He was obviously in terrible pain, she said of Hudson, who struggled to talk after Shaffer told him that Leniek’s house did fall on him.

Shaffer said she reaffirmed to him that God was with him and prayed with him as Hudson lay with his foot trapped in construction debris while the winds and rain surrounded him that night and he waited for rescuers to get him out.

Hudson’s wife, Karen, was also caught under the rubble, but was able to escape shortly after North Beach Volunteer firefighters responded.

She did not escape injuries, though, with her breastbone broken and bruises and cuts on her face, Shaffer said. Shaffer, who visited her in the hospital, said, ‘‘She’s absolutely purple from the neck to the waist.”

The firefighters did not have the proper equipment or training to tackle rescuing Frank Hudson, who was under so much debris, so rescuers called Washington, D.C., for help in extricating Hudson, Shaffer said.

Shaffer kept the cell phone line to Frank Hudson open, talking, praying and with silence, she said, until he said that he didn’t think he would make it out alive if he waited for rescue crews.

Miraculously Frank Hudson, with a crushed foot, broken jaw, missing teeth and bloody lacerations on his face, appeared out from under the two collapsed homes after about three hours of being trapped, and just after the Washington, D.C., crew arrived, Shaffer said.

It was a miracle they got out alive, she said.

‘‘They are very injured, and it’ll be a long recovery,” she said.

The Hudsons, Shaffer, her husband Michael Hall and other neighbors on B Street predicted that Leniek’s home would collapse long before it happened, and calls were made to alert both county and town officials of the changes in the design of the home and what they considered ‘‘shoddy construction,” Shaffer said.

Leniek could not be reached for comment.

Frank White, who lives across the street from Leniek’s collapsed house, told the Chesapeake Beach Town County last week that about 30 days ago Leniek took off the sheathing and cut out studs. White said five 2-foot by 6-foot supports were removed during the most recent modification of the house, leaving it without proper support.

Other than the house collapse, there was little damage to other homes in the area from the storm, White said.

‘‘I had a couple shingles flop,” he said. When White told the Chesapeake Beach Town Council about the modifications to the house during a meeting last Thursday, he said he was told that they can’t control shoddy workmanship.

‘‘I understand that, but someone needs to be responsible for safe development,” he told the council.

Whether it’s the town or the county, they need to acknowledge responsibility for safety, White said.

The Hudsons said they called the county and the town bi-weekly about the building of this house, but nothing was done. White said he heard, ‘‘It’s not our responsibility,” from both county and town officials.

County Division Chief of Inspections and Permits Joe Hawxhurst said he did not receive any calls directly about the Leniek house, but they may have called someone else and were referred back to the town, depending on how the caller worded the question. Any zoning issue is on the town, and the county just oversees the building permit, he said.

Hawxhurst said there have been no notations in the building permit tracking noting a risk of the building’s safety. Normally, if the county receives calls of the nature of safety, the county investigates it, and it is noted in permit tracking, he said.

Leniek’s foundation was inspected, but no framing has been inspected, and it is the burden of the builder to call for an inspection, Hawxhurst said. The building permit is good for two years or ‘‘as long as there is continuous construction,” he said.

The only concern listed on the permit is in 2006 when a portable toilet was not on site, he said.

County Deputy Director and Code Enforcer Mary Beth Cook said she was aware of the Leniek’s building permit, but did not deal with it directly.

Court records show Frank K. Leniek has been involved in numerous foreclosure claims in Calvert County, including a few on the house that collapsed, but he was able to hold onto the property. There are several active civil claims filed against Leniek in the Calvert County Court System for nonpayment of services and products, and some plantiffs that were awarded financial judgments from Leniek sought wage garnishment to collect their judgment, according to judicial records.

Leniek also filed for bankruptcy in 1999, and still has an active case of bankruptcy, records state.

Chesapeake Beach residents asked several questions to town officials at the town council meeting last Thursday night.

Hall, whose home is just 18 inches from Leniek’s house, said someone needs to be held responsible for what happened.

Leniek’s house could have fallen on Hall’s home, he said, hitting the propane unit.

‘‘By the grace of God, it wasn’t us,” he said.

While what happened to the Hudsons was sad, Mayor Gerald Donovan said that the building of the house was not the town’s responsibility.

White also asked why the code enforcer, Bill Watson, didn’t look into the house after so many calls of concern.

‘‘Where’s the code enforcement?” White asked.

Watson has a business as a developer’s advocate, ‘‘so how can he be a code enforcer when what he does for a living is advocate for developers,” White asked.

A phone call to Watson’s private line was answered with a message that stated, ‘‘This is Bill Watson, the developer’s advocate,” and phone messages were not returned.

Watson was not at the meeting, so Donovan posed the question to town attorney Eric Blitz. Blitz told the full house crowd that it was a building permit issue and the county had jurisdiction over it. The county will grant a building permit for two years, and then the builder calls for inspection, Blitz said.

White explained that the house was over the 35-foot limit, and Leniek was granted a zoning permit with a flat roof design, but he added a pitched roof afterwards, so this is a zoning issue, he said.

Donovan did not agree, saying the house was not in violation, and the issue of the height of the building was already addressed in an appeal to the zoning board last year.

After failing to receive any recourse during a number of years of construction of the Leniek house, several B Street residents, including Councilman Patrick Mahoney, filed a case with the zoning board of appeals in November 2006 stating that the building was more than 35 feet tall and was not the original site plan.

The board decided in January 2007 that the house was in compliance with the 35-foot restriction and Leniek was able to continue to build.

‘‘We tried to use the legal remedies at our disposal to keep what happened from happening to no avail,” White said. ‘‘It shouldn’t have come to this.”

The No. 1 goal should be to serve the public and safety, White said of the county and town. This is a critical area and it’s right on the bay, White said.

Under current zoning regulations Leniek’s construction is apparently legal.

‘‘How can this be fixed?” White said to the town council and received applause from town residents.

Councilman Bruce Wahl said the new comprehensive plan that the town is working on will address zoning regulations. The town is considering a zoning change and is aware of the critical areas near the bay, he said.

Shaffer said her hopes were that something like this would never happen to anyone again and she was going to pursue the issue until she is satisfied that it will not happen to anyone else.

The Hudsons were both in the hospital during the meeting, but have recently been released.