High Winds Cause Roof Collapse in West Fargo, Two Escape Injury

The same building had a partial roof collapse on Sunday.

WEST FARGO, N.D. — Emergency crews rush to a roof collapse at a building on Main Avenue with two people inside.

Just before 3:00 P.M. Thursday the West Fargo fire department responded to a call at RJ Corman on the 22oo block of Main Avenue East about a roof collapse that left two people trapped inside. Thankfully, both were able to get out before the fire department arrived and they are now safe and no injuries have been reported.

This is the second time this week that crews responded to this same incident at this location. There was a partial roof collapse here on Sunday due to the heavy amounts of snow from this past weekend’s storm.

On Thursday, two additional parts of the roof caved in and another part was actually blown away. West Fargo Fire Chief Dan Fuller says the issues were caused not by snow, but by the heavy gusts of wind.

“There is no more snow on that roof. It was all taken off during the initial collapse so now the wind is just kind of picking it up. The building is sitting at just the right angle that the wind is hitting it and lifting what is left of the roof trusses up and off. It’s a sheet metal roof, it acts a giant sale and it is just going to end up ripping off,” Chief Fuller said.

Fuller says there is now about 30 to 40 feet of good roof left over the building, but he expects that part of the roof to be blown off by the end of the day.

There are a few other business located nearby RJ Corman, but none of those were evacuated.