Church addition collapse

Happened in my community the other day. No one hurt, but I’ll bet that was expensive. Lot’s of big trusses laying on the bottom.

Wow, look at that. I’m glad no one was hurt. I wonder if that was wind related looking at the gable end and direction all the trusses fell.

Great image Chuck

Yep, glad no one was hurt.

Seen that before.
Another case of improper erection procedure.
Look what’s missing in that picture.

A captain for Platte Canyon Fire says they don’t know what caused the collapse, but there was nothing suspicious about it.


You can’t see any to the top chord diagonals and lateral 2x4 bracing.

always follow instructions on the label!

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Any erection is a good one at my age…:rofl:

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That’s affirmative here too!! :wink::grin:

It is hard to believe no one was hurt…or killed by the looks of that.

Happened on a Saturday, so no one was around.
Might of had high winds or a gust of wind and that was it.

It was empty at the time. Somebody failed on their temporary bracing. We get lot’s of wind up here, but not abnormally high on the day it collapsed.

Thanks for sharing that Chuck, hopefully it will be a good reminder for Contractors in that area how important temporary bracing is.

The lesson comes when the contractor discovers their “completed operations” insurance does not cover that mess. Not sure if “builders risk” insurance covers it or not. More likely than not the contractor is on the hook for removing the debris and putting it back together with sound components. At a minimum, I think a few carpenters and the job supervisor got a talking to.

And if the Insurance Company can prove negligence on the Contractors part, it could turn bad.
Job could be bonded to protect the client though.

For sure, it doesn’t take much wind to topple trusses with the lack of temporary bracing.

Wow! Shear walls laying on the ground with the shear panel detached, that’s a really bad sign! Top plates pulled apart… both of those things indicate inadequate nailing. And it looks like no shear panel was installed tying those wall sections together. I don’t see any remnants of framer’s plates on the long wall at the left side. I see diagonal bracing beneath the ridge of those first 6 trusses still standing.
It looks like they had some wind, the left side corners blew out and that caused the trusses to drop. Trusses are increasingly intact toward the original structure where the addition walls were tied in more securely.
Somebody was in a hurry to get the roof on and couldn’t wait for framing and plumb and line to be completed! Sometimes it’s when the roof is dried in that the contractor gets a draw from the bank.
Anyway, it appears to be pilot error and I’ll bet there was money involved in that decision.

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Heres a damaged warehouse from a derecho we had about 6 weeks ago. It appears that the wind lifted the roof, the wall fell over and the roof came crashing down.





Was it under construction? Was anyone hurt?

It was built in 2006. No one was injured as far as I know.

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The “what can happen”, people often ask.

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Hurricane force winds with an open garage door. Will happen everytime.

Any large openings or if some windows blow out the internal pressure goes up and so does the roof typically.