Skip to content

Another Nakusp roof collapses under weight of snow

This is the third home that had its roof caved in by heavy snow
10936700_web1_180308-BPD-HOUSECOLLAPSE

Emergency crews in Nakusp were called out Wednesday to another collapsed roof caused by heavy snow- the third in a week and a half.

This time, the roof covering a wraparound, second-story deck of a house on Shakespeare Road collapsed, said Nakusp Fire Chief Terry Warren.

RELATED: After houses collapse, fire chief warns: check your roof

No one was injured in the collapse, though a truck parked next to the house was damaged. Electricity was cut off to a portion of the house, but the residents are still able to occupy the building, said Warren.

“The heavy snow seems to be really affecting big, long open runs of roof,” said Warren. “We also find that people are losing their gutters, their eavestroughs, to the weight of the snow.”

On Monday, the snow caused the roof of a home in Nakusp to collapse, completely destroying a garage and damaging the main part of the home. No one was injured in that incident.

The roof of a mobile failed on Feb. 25, trapping a resident inside the building. The occupant was taken to hospital with unspecified injuries.

Warren says he’s heard reports of another building on Shakespeare Road, a Quonset hut, being damaged by snow earlier this year.

RELATED: Rossland City Hall roof partially collapses

The fire chief is urging people to check the snow loads on their roofs, and recommends a National Research Council website for calculating snow loads.

“We want people to be careful, we don’t want them falling off their roofs,” he says.

Some areas around Nakusp have seen up to 200 inches (500 cm) of snow this year.

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.