By Neil Farrell
Eight college students were injured — four taken to the hospital — at an early morning, pre-St. Patrick’s Day party with revelers clambering onto a roof, which collapsed.
At about 4:44 a.m. Saturday, March 7, police began receiving complaints about a big parties in the area of Hathway Avenue, which is off California Boulevard and near the Cal Poly Campus.
SLOPD Sgt. Sean Gillham said, “Coordinated through social media, several thousand college-aged young men and women poured into the residential neighborhood. Many of the revelers possessed alcoholic beverages and were wearing green clothing consistent with a pre-St. Patrick’s Day celebration.”
SLOPD and Cal Poly Police tried to check the growing crowd that was becoming unruly.
“Officers began issuing citations to minors possessing alcoholic beverages and to party hosts for violating the City’s noise ordinance,” Sgt. Gillham said in a news release.
Tickets and warnings became moot however, when at 6:21 a.m. 30-40 partygoers were standing on the roof of a small garage at 364 Hathway Ave., when the roof gave way and the building collapsed on itself.
At least eight people suffered minor injuries, said Sgt. Gillham. A piece of wood impaled one victim through the leg, he added. Four were taken to the hospital and seven others were treated by fire paramedics at the scene and released.
That caused a full scale “mass casualty” incident to be declared and the fire department sent three paramedic engines, a battalion chief, San Luis Ambulance sent three buses and assisted with triaging the victims.
Police asked for assistance from area agencies and the Sheriff’s Department, Highway Patrol, and Atascadero police responded to help clear the streets and “quell the unruly behavior,” said Sgt. Gillham.
Police stayed on scene and fire department, police and City Building inspectors surveyed the damage. By noon the streets were quiet, though strewn with trash, mostly empty plastic bottles and cans.
Area residents walked about their business in what is an almost exclusively student neighborhood. Trash abounds all over the place and a small complex next door to the roof collapse looks as if it were a main site for the party.
A resident said they weren’t commenting on what happened. A hand-painted sign on that beat up house read, “Don’t Roof,” good advice a tad too late.
Sgt. Gillham told Tolosa Press that the garage, “had some furniture within it but the fire department advised it was not being used as a living space [no bed, etc]. We do not believe anyone was actually inside the building. If there had been, I believe there would have been more serious injuries.”
As for citations and arrests, “I’m sure there were citations issued and some arrests made. I just don’t have the particulars,” he said.
Police released photos taken of the scene prior to, and just after the collapse, taken by an unnamed student attendee, which police had obtained. Names of the injured were not released.
Police vowed to be out in force Saturday night “to curtail further unruly behavior,” said Sgt. Gillham.
The giant gathering comes as Cal Poly has shutdown and forbade fraternities and sororities from have any parties at all, after allegations of sexual assault were filed allegedly committed at several frat parties.
It missed by several days the City’s special enforcement period, a City ordinance that goes into effect around occasions like St. Patrick’s Day, Mardi Gras, Halloween and Poly’s Open House (the old Poly Royal), among other high-partying dates.
