Dollar store roof collapse 4

[JoshPlumSE]

I didn't see anything about this in the Engineering disasters forum. So, I thought I'd post it here:

Dollar store roof collapse kills 68-year-old man

Authorities in Kansas City, Missouri, say that a 68-year-old man has died and a 50-year-old woman suffered serious injuries when part of the roof and front facade of a Family Dollar store collapsed

abcnews.go.com

TLDR summary:
In Kansas City, MO, the store front / roof of a Family Dollar store collapsed yesterday (7/27/25). On man was killed an another seriously injured.

 

[JoshPlumSE]

Really I'm most curious if anyone from the area knows more about what could have caused this collapse.

While the building looks old and poorly maintained, these sorts of collapses usually occur when there is some event (clogged roof drain, build up of snow loads, wind uplift) that I suspect there was something here that we don't know about that caused any maintenance issues to be exacerbated or exposed.

 

[human909]

Engineering failure?

Yeah maintenance most likely:

Complaint filed with 311 about Family Dollar store two days before partial collapse

A complaint was filed with the City of Kansas City just two days before a roof partially collapsed at a Family Dollar store at 3726 Broadway Boulevard.

www.kshb.com

Street View · Google Maps

Explore a place in a more immersive way in Google Maps.

www.google.com

 

[MintJulep]

Per@human909's link...

Car crash 9 years ago demolished the column holding up the corner of the building. It was never replaced.

Pretty straightforward negligence case for the victims.

 

[human909]

Yep. Before:

AUGUST 2015



After:
MARCH 2017

(You can even see the hole in the ground where the column was!)

MUCH AFTER [OCTOBER 2024]


The building tried it's hardest stay upright for almost nine years!

 

[XR250]

Wow that is crazy. I wonder if the AHJ knew about it?

 

[LittleInch]

I saw it looked like a cantilever, but not replacing a column after it got demolished???

Looks like a pretty good law suit coming up there.

 

[XR250]

Man, I'm sticking with Dollar Tree from now for my Chef Boyardee!

 

[dold]

Side note - I have done site surveys in several dollar tree / family dollars (soon to be converted into whatever else) and the back of house of those places are absolute horror shows. Stock rooms stacked to the ceiling with ripped open boxes. Absolutely inaccessible areas of the building due to merchandise being scattered everywhere. Maintenance nightmares. Oftentimes in the lowest rent strip malls in town with the stingiest of landlords. I always left those buildings feeling so bad for the one or two employees who did the work of ten people.

 

[JoshPlumSE]

The horror is that you can see obvious deflection problems in the 2017 picture too. It's shocking to me that they never replaced it or at least got an engineering report for it.

 

[phamENG]

I used to do strip mall site surveys for new dollar stores. Didn't see what @dold saw, since they hadn't move in yet, but a lot of those places are pretty sketchy.

That third street view photo...you can see the cladding pulling apart where the roof is sagging. Yikes. I'd hate to be called in as an expert of Family Dollar's side...

@XR250 - just remember, Family Dollar was owned by Dollar Tree from 2015 to this month. So that issue was technically a dollar tree issue.

 

[XR250]

@XR250 - just remember, Family Dollar was owned by Dollar Tree from 2015 to this month. So that issue was technically a dollar tree issue.

Well that's just great