Partygoers jumped up and down to pulsating music in the middle of the clubhouse, celebrating Clemson University’s homecoming at an off-campus apartment complex. The good times turned to chaos when the floor collapsed, dropping a room full of people into a lower level. Thirty people were injured when the floor of a clubhouse collapsed during a party at The Woodlands Apartments in South Carolina, the Clemson City Police Department said. Police received a call at 12:30 a.m. Sunday and responded to the apartment complex on Old Greenville Highway. Officers arrived to find more than two dozen injuries, although no one was entrapped and none of the injuries were believed to be life-threatening, police said. Larissa Stone, a sophomore at Clemson University, said she arrived to the party about 20 minutes before the floor collapsed. She said a song played that "a lot of people liked." "So everyone was jumping. The beat was about to drop and literally the whole floor collapsed," she said. "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." Police said a group had leased the clubhouse for a private party. "It was packed," Stone said. "That many people should not have been in there." Joe Galbraith, Clemson University's associate vice president for strategic communications, confirmed that the party was hosted by the Clemson Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. He said it is an annual event the group hosts around homecoming and that it is not “atypical for a student organization to have an event off campus at a facility like this in the community.” He said the university is trying to identify which students were affected and to make sure their families and professors are informed and that they are aware of university resources available to them. Various videos of the floor collapse have been posted on social media. In one video, people can be seen happily dancing before screams and chaos erupt. "The floor broke," one woman yells. Another video shows the gaping hole in the center of the room and people trying to climb out. Resident Victoria Stokes, who has lived at the apartment for about a year, described the chaotic scene after the collapse. Stokes said she saw some people being carried out of the building using lawn chairs. Stokes wasn't at the party, but described the apartment complex as quiet. She said the party was loud, but didn't think anything of it because it was homecoming weekend. The Woodlands of Clemson is a "townhome and garden style condominium community" according to its website. The complex, which is about three miles away from Clemson University, includes both students and non-students. Tal Slann, President of Woodlands Management of Clemson, Inc., sent an email to residents Sunday morning. As you all know there was a party in the clubhouse last night. This party resulted in a collapse of the floor structure in front of the fireplace at the clubhouse. The Clubhouse and pool area is OFF LIMITS to all. The clubhouse will be inspected by structural engineers as soon as possible. From there, the homeowner’s association will determine how to rebuild the clubhouse to make it safe for all residents. Our thoughts and prayers are with all those who were injured and we apologize for any inconvenience. The complex has both student and non-student residents. Slann explained that the complex is not corporate-owned, and the homeowner's association manages all of the shared spaces, including the clubhouse. According to the "Community Rules and Regulations Addendum" posted on the complex's website, "Tenant does hereby indemnify Landlord and agent, and hold Landlord and Agent harmless against all claims for personal injury sustained by Tenant, Tenant’s family and guest in their use and enjoyment of the pool or other provided facilities within the Community." The injured people were transported to area hospitals by Clemson University EMS, Pickens County EMS and Med Shore Emergency Services. Clemson University Fire coordinated the efforts. In all, EMS transported 23 attendees to local hospitals, while seven others arrived via “personal transportation," according to a statement from Clemson University. Clemson University officials were notified of the incident early Sunday morning and were still gathering information about what happened. Jim Clements, the university's president, described it as a "terrible situation." “I want to personally thank all the first responders who quickly came to the aid of our students, including the Clemson University Fire Department and our Student Affairs team, which has been with our students and their families since early (Sunday) morning," he said through the university. "Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with all those affected by this very unfortunate incident.” Kappa Alpha Psi, the fraternity hosting the party, was cited by the university in 2017 for holding an event at an off-campus rental during which "damages occurred to the property." The fraternity was required to submit documentation to the university saying the owners had been paid back and had to hold an educational session for all National Pan-Hellenic Council chapters at Clemson "to present the current fraternity and sorority social policy, including why each aspect of the policy is required and how they can be applied to NPHC social functions." According to the university's report on conduct cases, the chapter met these requirements and the issue was resolved within the same month, by April 27, 2017. Contributing: Jason Clary, Anderson Independent Mail Follow Mollie R. Simon on Twitter: @mrsimon22<doc-sep>“So everyone was jumping. The beat was about to drop, and literally the whole floor collapsed,” she said. “People are under other people. People are hurt. People are bleeding. I had blood on my sneakers. It was really bad.”<doc-sep>(CNN) — As a crowded group of Clemson University students and local residents danced and jumped around at an apartment clubhouse late Saturday night, Jeremy Tester felt something strange beneath his feet. “You could hear the floor about to go through, kind of,” he said, “but nobody thought it was going to happen. They just kept going.” Suddenly, the floor gave way. Dozens of partiers dropped into free fall and landed in a mass of sprawling bodies in the basement. Police said 30 people were injured when the floor of the apartment clubhouse collapsed during a party during homecoming weekend in Clemson, South Carolina. No individuals were trapped during the collapse and no one suffered life-threatening injuries, Clemson Police Chief Jimmy Dixon told CNN affiliate WYFF. A total of 30 people were sent to three area hospitals with broken bones and lacerations. “We’re just thankful that it was not any worse than it was,” Dixon said. Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity party Clemson University said the event was an annual homecoming weekend party sponsored by Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity and attended by students and non students alike. In a statement Sunday, the university said it was working to identify Clemson students involved and to notify any other institutions whose students attended. “The University will continue to do everything it can to help and support our students who were affected by this terrible situation, as well as their families and friends,” campus President Jim Clements said in the statement. Provost Bob Jones said the university’s faculty had been asked “to exercise some flexibility in attendance policies for those students who were involved in this traumatic event.” Chaos and screaming Tester said emergency responders were there in just minutes, and he saw people holding their arms or with bloody legs. Video from the scene shows the floor opening up like in a horror movie. The scene of joy and celebration quickly turned to chaos and screaming. Franzie Pendergrass and Leroy Pearson told WYFF they were in the middle of the clubhouse during the party. Pearson said he was jumping with his hands in the air when he suddenly felt a falling sensation, then blacked out. When he came to, he saw “girls everywhere with blood all over their face and everything like that,” Pearson said. Pendergrass left with 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. Floor moved like trampoline Jaylen Adams said he felt the floor going up and down like a trampoline as people jumped around to the music. He told his friends they needed to go on the balcony but the floor cracked before they could get out of the way. Adams didn’t fall. “They weren’t hurt at all but other people were crying, bleeding, it was just a shocking moment for everyone,” he said. “They then evacuated everyone and ambulances and a helicopter came for all of the injured individuals.” The incident occurred just after midnight Saturday at the clubhouse of the Woodlands of Clemson apartment complex, Woodlands Property Management President Tal Slann said. The complex is about three miles northeast of Clemson University. The clubhouse building where the collapse happened is a common area within the complex and was built in 2004, Slann said. Police said the investigation is ongoing. CNN’s Danielle Hackett, Amanda Jackson, Amir Vera and Nicole Chavez contributed to this report.<doc-sep>Hide Transcript Show Transcript WEBVTT WILL BE INVESTIGATED. NOLAN: BRUNSWICK ENGINEERING WILL BE TAKING PLACE AT THE CLUBHOUSE TO SEE WHAT LED TO THE COLLAPSE. AN ENGINEER SAYS THAT WILL INCLUDE COLLECTING A WIDE RANGE OF DATA. >> HE IS CONSULTING ENGINEERS IN GREENVILLE. ONE OF HIS SPECIALTIES IS STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING. CARTER WHAT COULD HAVE CAUSED THE COLLAPSE. >> IT COULD BE DESIGNED. IT COULD BE CONSTRUCTION. IT COULD BE THAT THE FACILITY WAS OVERLOADED. >> THE FORENSIC ENGINEERING DATA WILL LOOK AT CONSTRUCTION CODES AND WHAT THE LAYOUT OF THE CLUBHOUSE LOOKED LIKE. TWICE WHETHER THAT STRUCTURE IS SUPPORTED ON COLUMNS AND BEAMS OR SUPPORTED BY PARTITION WAS FOR A CLEAR SPAN. THAT MEANS IT IS DESIGNED SO THAT THE FLOOR SPANS FROM WALL-TO-WALL. >> CARTER SAYS ALL THREE SUPPORT SYSTEMS ARE SAFE UNLESS THERE IS TOO MUCH WEIGHT. WHILE WE DON’T KNOW HOW MANY PEOPLE WERE ON THIS FLOOR, THEY SAY THERE WAS AN OCCUPANCY LIMIT OF 135 PEOPLE. >> UNTIL YOU CAN HAVE ALL OF THAT DATA, YOU CANNOT SPECULATE. >> CARTER SAYS IT WILL BE IMPORTANT TO FIND OUT THAT CAUSE. COLLAPSES WITH THESE TYPES OF STRUCTURES CAN BE PREVENTED Advertisement 3 Clemson students remain in hospital after floor collapses during homecoming party Floor collapses at Woodlands Apartments on Old Greenville Highway Share Shares Copy Link Copy Three Clemson students remain in the hospital Tuesday after a floor collapsed Sunday morning during a homecoming party at an off-campus apartment clubhouse, according to Clemson associate vice president Joe Galbraith. (Video above: Cellphone video captured the collapse)Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity was hosting a homecoming party at the clubhouse at Woodlands Apartments, Galbraith said. “It’s not atypical for student organizations to host event off-campus, especially during a busy weekend like homecoming,” according to Galbraith.Clemson city police received the call about 12:30 a.m. regarding the collapse at the apartment complex, on Greenville Highway.Thirty people were taken to three hospitals, officials said. The university said 29 of the 30 were Clemson students. Video circulating on social media shows people listening to music and jumping up and down, forcing the first floor to give way. Dozens of people fell down one level with the broken floor.Clemson Police Chief Jimmy Dixon said no one was trapped.Clemson University sent a CU Safe Alert, notifying students, faculty and staff about the incident at the Woodlands Apartments. The school said they would provide counseling and psychological services for "distressed students. "“I'm monitoring the situation, and my thoughts and prayers are with all who were injured," Clemson University President Jim Clements said. "Our entire student support system will be available for any student impacted.”Students from several different colleges were in attendance. The video below reveals radio traffic from dispatchers following the collapse.WYFF News 4 Investigators found the clubhouse met building codes in 2005 when it was built. Clemson planning and code director Todd Steadman said there was an occupancy limit of 135 people for the upstairs portion of the clubhouse that collapsedSteadman said a third-party structural engineer will inspect the building on Thursday.The Associated Press contributed to this report.<doc-sep>
CLEMSON, S.C. — The floor of a clubhouse near Clemson University where a homecoming party was taking place collapsed early Sunday, hurtling dozens of people into the basement, authorities said. About 30 people were taken to hospitals after the center part of the floor at the clubhouse in northwest South Carolina caved in during the annual homecoming weekend party sponsored by Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. It hadn't yet been determined how many of those injured at were Clemson students, the university said in a letter to students and faculty. Video posted on social media showed a large part of a floor on the first level caving in as people were dancing, causing dozens to fall through to the floor below. Larissa Stone, a sophomore at the university, told the Independent Mail of Anderson that the room was "packed" and that a popular song was playing when the floor collapsed. "So everyone was jumping. The beat was about to drop, and literally the whole floor collapsed," she said. "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." Partygoers screamed, and those who didn't fall stood on parts of the first floor that remained and gazed below in shock. Some people standing on the sidelines pulled out their cellphones to record the floor collapse. A witness who attended the party said that people were jumping and that then suddenly he heard "a boom." "All you seen was falling, everybody's hands up in the air," Franzie Pendergrass told NBC affiliate WYFF of Greenville. Leroy Pearson said he went to try to help injured people and saw what he thought looked like broken ankles and legs. "It was crazy," Pearson said. Police said the event was a private party by a group that had leased the clubhouse at The Woodlands Apartments, about three miles from Clemson. According to police, a call was received about 12:30 a.m. Sunday about the collapse of the floor at The Woodlands clubhouse. Ambulances were quickly called to the scene. Property manager Tal Slann told The Associated Press that the condominium complex was built in 2004-05. He said he couldn't comment on whether there was a limit on the number of people who were supposed to use the clubhouse at one time. "I can tell you there was a party. I can tell you there was a floor collapse. There were injuries. They were not life-threatening. Nobody was trapped," he said.