NEW ORLEANS — An Indiana-based pool manufacturer says one of its pools installed days before the Hard Rock Hotel collapse was not a factor leading to the deadly disaster, and a second pool scheduled to be installed on the area that did collapse had not yet been installed.
As WWL-TV reported Monday, a photograph of the Chester Pool Systems pool hooked to a crane was taken Thursday, two days before the collapse. Sources told WWL-TV it was installed on Friday, hours before the Saturday morning collapse, but Chester Pool Systems Vice President Greg Carnforth said it was placed on a 9th floor deck on Thursday.
That lower section of the building was not affected by the collapse.
“As a Subcontractor to Citadel Builders, Chester Pool Systems is saddened by the events at the Hard Rock Hotel site in New Orleans,” Carnforth said in a statement to WWL-TV. “To clarify, Chester is under contract for two stainless steel swimming pools. The pool that is shown in the reports was installed on the 9th floor two days prior to the collapse and is still in place.”
Design drawings filed with the City of New Orleans show that a rooftop pool on the 18th floor was added to the plans after construction began. That would have gone on the section that collapsed, but had not yet been delivered, Carnforth said.
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“The planned rooftop pool has not been installed and is being held in our Southern Indiana manufacturing facilities,” he said. “As part of the New Orleans construction community for over 30 years, our prayers are with the families of those that were lost.”
