Loved ones mourn father of three killed in Sea Isle City condominium balcony collapse

Loved ones mourn a Philadelphia father of three who died after a balcony collapsed on him while doing construction work on a condominium building in Sea Isle City, New Jersey.

José Pereira, 43, his brother and a third person worked at the south tower of the Spinnaker condominiums at 3600 boardwalk around 2:30 p.m. Friday.

Pereira, a builder working for a private contractor on the exterior of the building, was on the 7th floor balcony, while his brother and a third worker were on the 8th floor balcony. While Pereira was working, the 8th floor balcony collapsed on top of him and he was trapped under thousands of pounds of rubble.

“The balcony has collapsed and my brother is under it,” Pereira’s brother, who suffered minor injuries along with a third worker, said during an emergency call. “My brother is trapped under the balcony! Please! My God! Please hurry up!”

Firefighters from several departments, the police and several search and rescue teams arrived at the scene and tried to get Pereira out.

NBC10’s Brenna Wake has details after rescue operations ended overnight after a worker was trapped when a balcony collapsed at a condominium building in Sea Isle City, New Jersey.

Capt. Matt Johnson of the Cape May County City Search and Rescue Team spoke to NBC10 about the challenges rescuers faced.

“Slab stabilization is lower to prevent further collapse,” he said. “Again, we don’t know what caused this collapse, so we need to think through the worst-case scenario so that other floors don’t collapse. We estimate that each floor weighs about 11,000 pounds. So it’s quite a lot of work to stabilize this before we can send our first responders to do the rescue.”

Rescuers attempted to reach Pereira on Friday evening but noticed significant cracks in the surroundings and a slope towards the balcony. They then determined that the side of the building was unsafe.

At that time, as reported by the police, all residents of the house were evacuated.

Then the rescue operation turned into restoration work.

“He was crushed by the collapse,” Sea Isle City Police Lieutenant Jim McQuillen said. “Now we have moved from rescue to recovery.”

Police said they attempted to develop a coordinated recovery plan to break through the outer wall of a building near Pereira’s location, cutting through approximately 12 inches of reinforced concrete after the seventh-floor balcony was temporarily stabilized from below.

Once a hole was made in the wall, the concrete slab was lifted with heavy airbags and Pereira’s body was removed.

OSHA employees were spotted on the eighth floor of the building, where there once was a balcony. Police are continuing to investigate the cause of the collapse.

“We’re not sure,” Sea Isle City Councilman Bill Kener said. “There are always questions about this type of accident.”

It is currently unknown if the balconies were previously inspected. Kener told NBC10 that he was concerned about vulnerabilities other than Spinnaker.

“What other buildings might be at risk in light of this? Not only here in Sea Isle,” said Koener.

Attorney Andrew Duffy, who works for the law firm that handled the fatal 2021 Surfside, Florida building collapse, told NBC10 about the similarities between the incident and Friday’s Sea Isle collapse.

“It’s the constant hitting these coastal buildings get from the salty air that only adds to the safety requirements that come with having regular inspections,” Duffy said.

A Sea Isle City Council meeting is scheduled for Tuesday. Kener said he plans to ask the city’s attorney if anything can and should be done at the local level to tighten measures related to building inspections in the city.