VA Clinic roof collapse is winter's 14th

A roof over a loading dock at the VA Clinic in East Anchorage collapsed on Friday afternoon due to a heavy snow load -- the latest in a string of structures to collapse amid the city's near-record snowfall.

It happened after the winter's first residential roof collapse earlier in the week -- an unoccupied house in Peters Creek -- and as city officials continue to advise homeowners to be mindful of roof loads that grow heavier with each new snowfall.

Their general advice: If the snow is more than 2 feet deep, there might be a problem.

Two workers at the VA Clinic were in the vicinity when the slab slapped down. One had just stepped off the dock and another was still on it. One of them was doused with snow but neither was injured.

"We dodged another bullet," said Jim Stubbs, the lead structural building inspector for the Municipality of Anchorage.

At 4 p.m. Friday, Stubbs and Ron Wilde, also with the city's Building Safety department, stood in front of the loading dock shaking their heads at the surprisingly intact flat surface, about 80 feet long and 16 feet wide. It had flipped to a vertical position against the wall to which it had been attached as neatly as a stored TV tray.

"It just folded up," said Stubbs.

It was the 14th roof collapse to which the department has responded this winter. With a total snowfall within 3 inches of the record for a single winter, roofs have come down on commercial buildings around town and a church auditorium.

The first residential roof collapse was reported on Wednesday evening at a vacant house in Peters Creek. The two-bedroom single-family home at Tundra Rose Avenue near Four Wheel Drive had been for sale for some months and was unoccupied. The Alaska Star reported that entire southern half of the 768-square-foot home was destroyed in the collapse.

"We're fortunate so far that there haven't been any injuries," said Sharen Walsh, the building official for the city. But she's concerned the luck may not hold.

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VA Clinic roof collapse is winter's 14th