Not a query I just want to pass on what I witnessed at a fishing camp in upper NY state.

At about 9 PM there was some commotion at a cabin on the waters edge. The manager of the camp ran over to us to ask if anyone had any medical training. We went over to the cabin and found 2 kids and 2 adults trapped under a collapsed deck. There was no way to lift the deck off as it had slid down a rock face and rested against a tree. All were conscious and in pain which is a good thing, no need to move them. Not long afterwards a nurse from a farm nearby arrived and agreed we shouldn't touch a thing. Emergency services arrived and took control of the situation. It took over an hour to remove them and get them on striker boards and up the hill. All 4 were hospitalized and all but 1 were released the next day thank goodness. 1 child was still in hospital in stable condition by the time we left. Only a few broken bones. I must commend the local and Watertown emergency service folks for an absolute fantastic job. To get them out in less than 2 hours from a 30 degree rock hill in the dark was heroic.

The next morning the boys and I looked at all the elevated decks and each and everyone of them were terribly not to code. I would have to write a novel to explain it all. One had 3 4X4's with the 2X6 joists toe nailed into a ledger board nailed to the cabins facia holding up a 20X 8 deck, and were only resting on rocks. Another had a small deck cantilevered out with 2 2X4's toe nailed to each post, and the posts were also just resting on a concrete block. Ridiculous.

The deck that did collapse separated at the ledger board on the structure, when it let go the injured slid towards the dwelling and somehow ended up below the deck. had it not been for a tree they and the deck would have ended up in the lake were a drowning would have been a good possibility. The ledger board in question was lag bolted into a hewn timber that was probably 50 years old. The timber was rotten and the lag bolts worked there way out.

The Troopers were there as well as the township building inspector early the next morning and were shaking their heads. 3 cabins were told to vacate immediately. 2 of which had small children. They would only let the adults in to get out their things. One of the renters refused to enter and the manager went in to clear it out. There was a heated conversation with 1 guest. The camp owner, who didn't even come down to the site, told the manager not to refund any money. A few hours after a trooper spoke to him he arrived.

Just a lesson to us all. As Mike Holmes says Do It Right.

Apparently the camp has been shut down until all the rental cabins are up to snuff. We counted about 10 code violations in our cabin alone from electrical to plumbing, and it's only 3 year new.

A lesson to us all who think permits are only a money grab. Permit or no permit build to code, and then some.