CALAIS – Two people were injured Wednesday when the 10-foot-high balcony they were standing on apparently broke away from its anchor bolts and crashed to the ground.

The two – a man and a woman – were listed in fair condition at Calais Regional Hospital Wednesday afternoon. The hospital declined to release their names, citing patient confidentiality.

Built in 1974, the two-story Palmer Street building was bought by the hospital in February 1992. It is located across from the hospital. Traveling medical providers while working at the hospital often use the two upstairs apartments in the building. There were three second-floor balconies attached to the building; now there are two.

At one time the first floor was home to the Veterans Affairs Medical Clinic. The VA clinic moved to Union Street last year.

“We use it for housing for … our temporary employees that come or are traveling,” hospital community relations director DeeDee Travis said after the accident. Among those who have used it are nurses, laboratory technicians and doctors. Travis said later that one of the injured people was a traveling medical provider; the other was a hospital employee.

Travis said hospital officials still are investigating what happened.

“I know basically that the staircase fell and the couple was injured and they’ve been brought into the emergency department. I know they’ll be looking in to see exactly what happened or what caused it.”

This is not the first time a balcony has collapsed in the city while someone was standing on it. In 1992, three Calais police officers were injured when the second-floor balcony on which they were standing collapsed. The three officers were at the residence to investigate a burglary. They were treated for multiple cuts and abrasions and then released.

Shortly after the accident Wednesday, an unidentified maintenance man was on a ladder nailing boards across the door that used to open to the balcony. A dog could be heard barking and scratching inside the apartment.

Around 11:15 a.m. the Calais Fire Department was notified that the stairwell had collapsed.

“Upon arriving we had two victims: one male, one female,” Assistant Fire Chief Ken Clark said. “I believe it’s a main entrance to the upstairs apartment and it just gave way and collapsed with two people on it. We had two victims we had to backboard and take to Calais Regional.”

Although the hospital was saying little, city officials went to the scene to assess what happened.

Code Enforcement Officer Jim Porter, accompanied by Fire Chief Danny Carlow and City Manager Linda Pagels, inspected the outside of the building.

It appeared that the balcony gave way because the bolts that had held it in place were drilled into wood that appeared rotted.

“This siding here, I don’t know what you call it,” the fire chief said, pointing at the other side of the building. “It does absorb moisture; you can actually feel it. It looks to me like on that end [where the balcony gave way], the sheathing behind it is rotted out.”

Porter also tested the safety of two other second-floor balconies and stairs that went up the back and side of the building.

Pagels said that although the city does abide by state building codes, communities with fewer than 5,000 people are not required to do an annual inspection of commercial buildings.

“You don’t have to have a full-time code enforcement officer,” she said. “We have talked about seeing if the city would be willing to adopt a policy, though.”

Porter agreed that the city was not required to inspect commercial buildings.

“We don’t check existing structures. New buildings are inspected,” he said. “Unless the city receives a complaint, then we inspect it.”

But even if the city had time to inspect commercial buildings, Porter said, any inspection is subject to limitations.