Spenard’s large commercial building was completely destroyed by a collapsed roof late on Wednesday. This happened a month after officials had warned about the potential for disaster from a snowfall that is already at a record level.
Alex Boyd, spokesman for the Anchorage Fire Department and its deputy chief Alex Boyd, said that it happened just before 11:00 p.m. The incident occurred at Spenard Builders Supply’s dispatch center on West 46th Avenue. Boyd reported that the initial alert was a fire alarm, then a number of calls were made reporting the incident. The collapse sent pieces flying in the streets, but did not cause any additional damage.
He said that no one was in the building at the time. It was located in the former SBS Truss Plant, which was at the corner of West 46th Street and Taft Street. This was a few blocks away from the intersection between Tudor Road and Minnesota Drive.
This is at least the third collapse of a SBS roof in less than 3 years.
Spenard builders supply representatives said on Thursday they were taking measures to investigate the latest collapse.
Carter Reves is a general manger with Spenard Builders of Anchorage. He sent an email stating that the business was taking preventive steps to eliminate future roof issues.
The statement stated that “Spenard Builders Supply and its parent, Builders FirstSource are currently working to minimize disruptions to services and operations to our customers and do not anticipate any major disruptions as our retail center remains open.”
According to the company’s website, it operates ten lumber locations and retail stores in Alaska. The company operates four production centers including truss factories in Eklutna, Kenai and Eklutna.
Ross Noffsinger is Anchorage’s acting Building Official. He said that municipal officials are currently investigating the collapse of this building and its construction to determine the cause.
Noffsinger stated that a thorough inspection of the part of the building which did not collapse indicated that inadequate metal gang nails plates are the likely suspects at this time. These plates are used to join wooden beams together in roof trusses.
In an email sent Thursday, he stated that the metal plates on a critical area of the trusses were “insufficiently large and/or poorly placed.”
He said that plates appeared to be the common factor in roof failures at multiple Anchorage commercial buildings in recent years.
Boyd confirmed that the Spenard Builders Supply was built with a parallel chord truss and flat roof in the 1980s. According to fire officials, the building is 275-300 feet in length and 125 feet in width.
Noffsinger stated that “in this particular case, the roof had failed relatively early in the year.”
Boyd reported that 14 fire departments responded along with Anchorage Police Department officials and municipal street department representatives, as well as Chugach Electric and Enstar. Boyd said that in addition to the collapse of the building, emergency responders also had to contend with broken water pipes which dumped water up to one foot deep onto nearby streets.
By Thursday morning, the first responders were gone. A few employees examined the debris as they walked around the perimeter. An alarm and emergency light flashed inside. As a result of the force, wooden boards and insulation were thrown into neighboring houses.
Anchorage is experiencing record-breaking snowfalls this winter. Two storms in November dumped several feet of snow at once. This was followed by an early-December windstorm that turned the accumulations into drifts. Then, higher temperatures followed. These can cause snow to melt on roofs and form ice dams which put pressure on buildings.
In addition, there were more snow accumulations than usual on buildings last year. At least 16 roofs suffered partial or complete failures. In February, a woman died and two other people were trapped when the gym roof in South Anchorage collapsed.
Spenard Builders Supply in Soldotna, Alaska collapsed after heavy snow fell on the Kenai Peninsula in December 2022. Local news reported that the company’s Fairbanks shop temporarily closed in March 2021 after a part of its roof buckled.
Noffsinger reported that snow load in Anchorage is now in the 20-25 pound per square foot range — roughly the same levels as last winter, when roofs collapsed.
The majority of collapses happened in spring 2022, after heavy snowfall in December that increased pressure for months.
Noffsinger warned that the record snowfall this year, which began in November, could lead to another winter with unusually high roof stress.
He said, “Time is important.”
Noffsinger stated that the roof collapses of Spenard Builders Supply building occurred outside the jurisdiction of the municipal officials, and therefore they do not have any details about those incidents. He said that they will also try to find out more information about what caused the roof failures in these situations.
The Anchorage Code typically states that a building must support at least 40 pounds of weight per square foot.
Last month, municipal building authorities issued new guidelines and encouraged property owners to remove snow, in particular those with older flat-roofed buildings. This is especially true for commercial buildings built before 1990 that have certain wooden roof trusses.
Boyd, who spoke Thursday morning on behalf of the Building Department, said that they would “reiterate what has been stated by the people in charge of building safety” and advised owners or building managers to be “vigilant”, “watch carefully”, and “be aware of the fact melting and the wind can make the accumulation appear less serious than it really is.”
He said that they may not have the strength to withstand snow loads as we are currently examining them because their structural codes do not meet current standards.
Scott Hamel is the chair of the Civil Engineering Department of the University of Alaska Anchorage. He said that most homeowners do not need to be concerned about snow load on their roofs at this time.
Hamel stated that the city’s snowfall is well below its 35 pounds per sq. foot peak from last winter. Homes don’t usually have as large a roof as commercial buildings. This is a safety issue.
According to him, flat-roofed houses with drainage problems that could cause an excessive amount of snow in certain areas or parallel chord truss design with inadequate metal plates connecting beams might benefit from an examination.
Hamel stated that “if you have good drainage there is not much of a problem.”
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