Many Buildings Red-Tagged in Error, City Says

City officials say that hundreds of earthquake-damaged buildings from South-Central Los Angeles to the San Fernando Valley may have been inaccurately tagged as unsafe or seriously damaged because of hurried inspections, unnecessarily forcing residents out of their homes.

The problem stems in part from the fact that many evaluations were performed quickly by agencies and volunteers unfamiliar with the city and its residential structures. Now, as the city’s Building and Safety Department has begun reviewing many of those initial postings, revisions are under way.

“My gut feeling is that as many as 25% to 30% will be changed,” said Russell Lane, chief building inspector, who is in charge of the city’s field operations. “We had many volunteers out there and even though they were trained, it was their first time out there.”

Nick Delli Quadri, a senior structural engineer and department spokesman, estimated that about 20% of the red placards, declaring buildings unsafe to enter, will soon be reclassified to yellow, which allows limited entry at the person’s own risk. And he said as many as 50% of the yellow placards would be revised to green, which places no restrictions on occupancy.

“When these emergency inspections were made, they were made under conditions of duress, (with inspectors) tagging buildings and quickly moving to the next,” said Delli Quadri.

Officials say that, by and large, inspectors were conservative in their initial assessments, preferring to make judgment calls on the side of caution.

In recent days, inspectors have begun to reclassify structures to allow limited or full access, particularly after owners have cleared rubble and made preliminary repairs.

Officials caution that, because of the hurried inspections, there may be buildings initially tagged as “limited entry” that are, in fact, not safe. “For the most part we’re OK, but there may be damage we didn’t catch, especially if we weren’t able to get into the buildings,” said Karl Deppe, a manager working on the department’s special emergency response team.

So far, 80% of the more than 30,000 buildings inspected by the city have been found to have suffered damage. Of that, 1,600 buildings have been declared unsafe, another 5,000 have been deemed damaged enough to permit only limited entry, and the rest have been damaged but are not considered dangerous.

So far only about a dozen demolition permits have been taken out and officials say they do not expect the total number of buildings that must be demolished because of the quake to exceed 100.

Even though officials say initial inspections should be seen as temporary, those assessments have had significant impact for many residents. Property owners have used the inspections to justify loan requests, and tenants have moved out of buildings declared unsafe.

Such was the case on West 40th Place in South-Central Los Angeles, where a team of inspectors who were not regularly assigned to the area declared as many as nine buildings unsafe.

The landlord at one evacuated four-unit building changed the locks, preventing a return by tenants.

At another building, a tenant who refused to move was threatened with eviction. “There is nothing wrong with this building,” argued Rose Flowers, a single parent who has lived in the building for 17 years. “There are only a few cracks.”

After Flowers complained to Councilwoman Rita Walters’ staff, city inspectors were called in to review the initial assessment. They found that Flowers’ building and eight others on West 40th Place had been improperly tagged as unsafe. The news came too late for many who, seeing the initial signs, packed their belongings and moved.

The incorrect posting also angered Flowers’ landlord, who had ordered the tenants out because he feared for their safety and did not want to be liable if the building collapsed. Now, he said, he has suffered too because he has lost good tenants who were reliable in paying their rent.

The building on West 40th Place did not suffer major structural damage from the quake, but cosmetic cracks in pillars supporting second-story units gave it an ominous appearance.

City officials refused to categorize the initial inspection as a mistake even though an inspector quickly revised the building’s status from an unsafe red category to green.

“It’s just a judgment call,” said Errol T. Tate, a senior building inspector who reversed the decision. “They called it the way they saw it. After a closer look, it was clear that the buildings had suffered some damage but not serious.”

In the days immediately after the earthquake, officials from the city’s Department of Building and Safety determined that they needed more than the department’s 300 inspectors and engineers to adequately determine the extent of the damage.

They reinforced the staff with a contingent of outside inspectors, including some brought in from other city departments, volunteers and inspectors from the Army Corps of Engineers, who were flown in from throughout the country. After orientation classes, they were sent out to the field.

“We’ve had inspectors showing up from all over,” said Dave Keim, principal building inspector. “They are coming from as far away as Florida, Washington, Arizona and Utah. We have verified their credentials and put them to work.”

Lane said the volunteers ranged in ability from excellent to poor. Many were initially paired with city workers, but after the city force was spread thin, they were sent out on their own.

In the San Fernando Valley, confusion erupted over a 13-story building where 200 county Department of Children’s Services employees work.

The building was surrounded by yellow police tape and its entrances were posted with yellow city signs reading “Limited Entry.” Such a posting would normally mean that the building could not be opened for business.

But that didn’t stop many people from going to work. Until Wednesday, workers had to climb to upper floors, using a dimly lit stairwell in which plaster had peeled from walls, because the building’s two elevators were knocked out of service by a power surge following an aftershock.

Many of those who had returned to work in the building said they were concerned about its safety.

“There is not a lot of communication right now. We don’t know what’s going on,” said social worker Jennifer Keltner, who works on the seventh floor of the building. “I mean, I saw that yellow tag and I thought, my God, what are we doing in here?”

After inspecting the building for a second time Thursday afternoon, city inspectors ruled that only a portion of the building was unsafe--a third-floor section that had also suffered damage in the 1971 Sylmar earthquake.

“Our inspectors have found that it can be occupied, except for a few areas,” Delli Quadri said after the inspection. He said the yellow tag was amended to instruct tenants to stay out of specific areas.

Still, workers’ fears were not allayed even after additional inspections by county and private experts, said Tim Farrell, a union shop steward for more than 100 social workers in the building.

“I don’t know that anything that has been posted makes anyone feel this building is safe,” Farrell said. “People still don’t know what’s going on.”

Arthur Blech, one of the building’s owners, is also concerned about the safety of the building. Blech said two private engineers he hired to examine it said the building had suffered “substantial structural damage.”

On Thursday he sent tenants a letter saying they may have to evacuate pending a more detailed report by a private structural engineer.

“Frankly, I feel the safety of the tenants is in danger,” Blech said.

He said the “Limited Entry” sign only served to scare people, himself included.

“I wouldn’t feel safe occupying a building with a sign that says you’re taking your life into your own hands.”

Building and safety officials say it is possible that some yellow-tagged buildings were not properly assessed in the initial flurry of inspections.

“Don’t just rely on our placard,” said Delli Quadri. “If you feel insecure, hire a contractor or an architect to take a closer look.”

Jim Usui, assistant chief of building and safety’s Management Assistance Division, said there is no way to quantify how many people are improperly occupying yellow-tagged structures throughout the city.

“It’s pretty obvious there is going to be a certain percentage of that going on. How do you keep people out if we’re not around to say, ‘You can’t go in there’?” Usui said. “They’re just taking their chances.”

* RELATED STORIES: A24-A25, B1, F2