Due to the heavy snowfall over the past week, two businesses suffered roof collapses on Friday December 16th due to snow load, according to Chief Roy Browning with Central Emergency Services.
The first occurred at just before 7 a.m. at the Soldotna Spenard Builders Supply on Funny River road in Soldotna.
Chief Browning explains;
“Central Emergency Services got dispatched to a structural collapse, ENSTAR gas company was already notified, and due to snow load the roof collapsed in the portion of the front store, leaning about fifty feet in. The roof collapsed there and they had some natural gas emitting, so right away, fire crews on scene standing by with ENSTAR, went ahead and cut the gas to the building off. And Homer Electric also responded to cut the electrical and CES stayed on scene for about and hour to an hour and a half for standby.”
According to Chief Browning, the Soldotna Spenard Builders Supply had been shutdown until they can get the snow cleared off and engineers are assessing the building.
The second roof failure occurred Friday afternoon at the IDEA Home School in the Copper Center located off Kalifornsky Beach road.
Chief Browning explains;
“There was school going on in the homeschooling area in the Copper Center in the one of the building’s there. And they heard some creaking and some of the inside ceiling started to sag and they quickly evacuated, called 9-1-1 and they had a portion of that roof also due to snow load collapse.”
As a result of the two roof failures, there were no injuries and all were able to evacuate safely according to Chief Browning. Due to safety concerns with the roofs at the Cooper Center on Kalifornsky Beach road, all businesses we evacuated until the snow can be removed.
