Colville School Roof Collapses Improperly Installed Trusses Blamed For Damage At Junior High School

Wed., Jan. 22, 1997

By John Craig johnc@spokesman.com

Students were in make-shift classrooms all over town Tuesday after part of the Colville Junior High School library roof collapsed Sunday.

No one was in the building when the roof fell, shortly before a volunteer entered the building about 2 p.m. and noticed minor flooding from a broken pipe.

The collapse was in an area damaged by fire in 1978. A structural engineer reported Tuesday that new roof trusses were improperly installed after the fire and may have been defective.

No damage estimate has been prepared, but insurance will cover all but $1,000, Superintendent Rick Cole said. Federal disaster assistance - approved about two weeks ago because of storm damage throughout the region - may cover the rest.

Contractors sealed off the library Tuesday and will check utility lines today. Teachers and 450 students will move back into the building Thursday, Cole said.

Until then, eighth-graders will remain in the separate junior high annex, and seventh-graders will continue to meet in two churches and the Colville Community Center.

Cole said a preliminary estimate indicates the repairs might be completed in a month, but he suspects that may be too optimistic: “You know how construction goes.”

City building official Robert Cleaver said the roof was required to hold a snow load of 40 pounds per square foot, and the 18 inches or so on the junior high roof were nowhere near that heavy.

“As near as we can figure it, there was somewhere between 21 and 26 pounds per square foot of snow accumulation,” Cleaver said.

School officials had been working with him to make sure none of the district’s roofs were overloaded, Cleaver said. The load was calculated to be 26 pounds per square foot on Friday and 21 on Monday.

Cole said the district was about as lucky as it could have been under the circumstances. The 20 to 30 trusses that collapsed remained suspended about eight feet off the floor and the roof membrane didn’t break - so almost no equipment or books were damaged.

Books and computers have been moved to other rooms and soon will be available again.

Cole said he had not found records Tuesday to identify the contractor who repaired the fire damage in 1978, long before he was hired.

, DataTimes

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