A railing gave way the morning of Thursday, April 1, in Antioch, California, injuring three. Two women and a young girl were leaning against their apartment balcony railing when it came loose, sending all three falling fifteen feet to the ground below.

Andra Mellinger, a resident of the apartments, said it was “like waking to a nightmare.” Mellinger awoke when she heard the impact of the three individuals, a sound she described as similar to someone knocking on her door.

Apparently, the area the three fell into is thick with bushes over dirt, which may have cushioned their fall and prevented more serious injury, though it appeared one of the women suffered head and neck trauma and may, in fact, have lost consciousness. She was in bad enough condition that she was airlifted for medical treatment.

At first, there was no indication as to what might have caused the railing to come loose. Further investigation revealed that the apartment building in question suffers from dry rot. The rot is extensive enough that many of the residents are to be relocated until questions of building safety are sorted out. Whether the railing itself gave way because of the rot is undetermined at this point, but it is a matter that is to be investigated further.

A single-story fall can be fatal if bones are broken, especially if the trauma is focused at the head and neck. Even a broken rib can puncture a lung with bone fragments, causing life-threatening injury. The fact that all three in this incident survived borders on the incredible, particularly when one considers that the youngest is a child under 10 years old.

The three victims have not been identified, and all were taken to hospitals. No word has been released on their conditions.

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