Briefly in the news

-- Deepa Bharath

NEWPORT BEACH -- A rusty support beam caused a 23-year-old building

near the Rhine Channel to collapse Monday evening, officials said

Tuesday.

The office building’s parking garage snapped off the main structure on

Lafayette Avenue. People working in the offices said they felt the

building shake around 5 p.m. and ran out, officials said. No one was hurt

or trapped.

On Tuesday, the garage was resting on the shallow end of the harbor.

One of the four cars in the ground-level parking structure was partially

submerged.

A supporting iron beam’s constant exposure to salty water was what

caused the corrosion that weakened it, said Jay Elbettar, director of the

Newport Beach Building Department.

“You could see the rust marks on the beam,” he said. “That was the

only visible warning.”

Elbettar said faulty construction did not cause the collapse.

“There was nothing wrong with the way it was built,” he said. “And

there is very little that could have been done to prevent it.”

The next step is to fix up the structure as soon as possible, Elbettar

said. The area around the leaning structure has been secured so nobody

gets hurt.