Mall collapses in Canada, 1 dead, dozens missing

Officials have been forced to suspend rescue efforts following a weekend roof collapse at a shopping mall in northern Ontario (Elliot Lake Mall) that led to at least one death and at least one other person trapped.

Screenshot video by CTV News covering the collapse of a mall in Canada

Bill Needles, a spokesman from the Heavy Urban Search and Rescue team, said Monday the building is “totally unsafe” and could collapse at any time. He says they can’t put rescue officials at risk. He says the condition of the building has deteriorated.

An unstable escalator that forced crews to remove their cranes from the site earlier in the day continued to separate from its supporting beams as the day progressed, he said.

“Realistically, the engineer’s telling me he doesn’t understand why it hasn’t collapsed already,” Neadles said. “The building is … totally unsafe.”

“Our team is certainly not happy,” said Neadles. “I’m not happy, nobody’s happy that we have to stop work. But that’s unfortunately the way we’ve had to end this situation.”

Several Elliot Lake residents the Globe and Mail contacted, including mall employees, spoke about the mall’s persistently leaky ceilings and said they felt the building was dangerous long before Saturday’s collapse.

Elliot Lake Mayor Rick Hamilton declared a state of emergency Saturday after the roof, which serves as a parking lot, crashed through two floors of the shopping centre, exposing twisted metal and concrete supports and triggering a gas leak. The Ontario Provincial Police emergency team were deployed to the area, as were about 40 specialists who make up Toronto’s Heavy Urban Search and Rescue team.

Full video coverage over at CTVNews: http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/20120625/potential-missing-persons-mall-roof-collapse-120625/