Angry Survivors Want Access to Building : Damage: All are barred from Northridge Meadows pending inspection.

Survivors of an apartment collapse that killed 16 denounced the owner Saturday, saying that he has added insult to injury by preventing the salvage of their remaining possessions by failing to have the structure inspected.

In a chaotic and emotional meeting at a local church, survivors of the Northridge Meadows collapse--the deadliest single incident in Monday’s 6.6 temblor--demanded to know when they would have a chance to search through the rubble for their possessions.

Many of the survivors said they are living in local shelters without money, identification, a car or even a change of clothes, and they expressed outrage that five days after the quake the building had not been inspected.

“If they don’t let us in within the next two days, I’m telling you, we’re going to bust in there,” said Erik Pearson, 27, who lived on the third floor. “We’ve been going out of our minds.”

“I’m trying to be logical about this, but I’m losing my patience,” said Josephine Winans, who was rescued from Apartment 128 by other residents after the roof collapsed above her. “I have nothing, and I at least need to take a picture of my apartment to show that I was under the rubble, for insurance purposes.”

Cary Erdman, who lived in Apartment 112, was upset that several people had been able to gain access and retrieve some possessions while he and others who had obeyed the law were still without their things.

“It just hasn’t been fair, and no one really understands what is going on,” he said. “There is a lot of confusion about when people are going to be let in.”

A spokesman for owner Shashikant Jogani, one of Los Angeles’ biggest residential landlords, said an engineer is expected to examine the building this week.

“We have to wait,” said Bill Banker, a Jogani spokesman. “Who could live with that on their conscience if more people died?”

Banker dismissed rumors that the building will soon be razed. Nevertheless, some survivors were clearly near panic, begging to be allowed inside.

No one will be allowed to enter the condemned building until it is inspected by engineers, said officials from the Department of Building and Safety.

Using a crane, Building and Safety workers retrieved some survivors’ cars from the top floor of the apartment complex’s parking garage Saturday, but most residents were less than satisfied with that development.

Like many other survivors, Pearson said he planned to sue Jogani.

“Firefighters told me that that building was not retrofitted, and that it was built after the ’71 quake,” Pearson said. “Look at the disaster and great loss of life in this building compared to the other buildings around here. There’s a reason. I think there are a lot of smoke screens going on.”

Warren O’Brien of the Department of Building and Safety said that he had spoken with Jogani personally.

“He had a complete misunderstanding of the problem and how to relieve it,” O’Brien said, adding that Jogani seemed traumatized by what had happened to his building.

Art Johnson, a building official, said the city has condemned the apartments, prohibiting entry, until the owner decides what to do with the structure.

“It’s the responsibility of the owner, at that point, to determine what to do with his building,” Johnson said. “Whether he thinks the building is stable enough for people to go in, or whether he thinks the structure needs to be razed.”

Jogani could not be reached for comment Saturday. He has been described as one of Los Angeles’ most prominent landlords.

Last month, Jogani was one of the key defendants in a class-action lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court by the NAACP and two civil rights law firms, which contended that several San Fernando Valley apartment owners discriminated against African Americans.

Trying to talk above the cynical comments of the crowd, O’Brien said that the Department of Building and Safety will let in as many residents as they can as soon as possible, but not until they have a chance to examine the findings of Jogani’s engineer. “I’m not just going to let people crawl through the rubble,” he said. “This is a dangerous situation.”

Until more is known, the United Methodist Church of Northridge, 9650 Reseda Blvd., will serve as an information center for survivors.

Every morning at 9, a list will be posted at the church noting if anyone will be allowed into the building and, if so, who.