Irish leader visits Berkeley to honor balcony victims

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) - The president of Ireland met with Berkeley's mayor, police officers and paramedics, health workers and area residents to thank them for helping the victims of a June balcony collapse and their families.

President Michael Higgins on Wednesday called the balcony collapse that killed six college students attending a party "a tragedy that has affected our people very deeply." Five of the students were from Ireland.

"We were told and witnessed from afar your quick and unwavering support for our students and their families," he told the group of first responders at a hotel a block away from where the balcony collapsed.

Higgins and Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates shoveled dirt around a pair of strawberry tree saplings planted in honor of the victims in a downtown city park just a few blocks from the Library Gardens complex, the site of the accident.

Bates said the city council on Tuesday approved more stringent construction and inspection rules for balconies.

"This event is not going to go unnoticed, it's not going to go down as a footnote in history," Bates said. "We are going to change the way we do business in Berkeley so it never happens again."

Five Irish students working in the San Francisco Bay area for the summer and the Irish-American cousin of one of them died after the balcony crowded with celebrating young people collapsed during a birthday party.

A city investigation revealed that the wooden beams supporting the structure were rotted through from water damage. The Alameda County district attorney has been conducting an investigation to determine if criminal charges are warranted.

Higgins, who was elected to a seven-year term in 2011, is nearing the middle of an eight-day West Coast visit that already has included a stop in Seattle, a visit to Google Inc.'s headquarters and a speech on world hunger at the University of California, Berkeley.

Bates' office said the type of evergreen tree selected for the planting ceremony was picked because it is native to both Ireland and California.

The family of 22-year-old Ashley Donohoe of Rohnert Park, California, one of the students who died, along with cousins from Ireland attended the ceremonies.