Snow load collapses roof at Lake Tahoe condo, residence destroyed
The roof over a Lake Tahoe condominium on Kingsbury Grade in Douglas County collapsed Friday, destroying one unit and causing major damaging to the other. No one was home at the time of the collapse and there were no injuries.
Tahoe Douglas Fire Department responded to the Friday morning incident near the intersection of South Benjamin Drive.
"Looks like a total loss as the only thing still standing is garage, but even that ceiling is damaged," said Tahoe Douglas Fire Marshall Eric Guevin.
Nevada Highway Patrol diverted traffic in the area so TDFD could set up their ladder truck and conduct a visual inspection to look at the possibility of their accessing the building.
Guevin told South Tahoe Now that all utilities to both units of the building are shut down. The Douglas County Building Department has "red-tagged" the building for now since the second unit shares a common roof with the damaged unit.
A heavy snow load is to blame for the collapse. Guevin said the snow was about six feet high on the roof with about a 50 pounds per square foot snow load. He said it could have even been heavier than that with the heavy water content of the snow. The roof that collapsed is also on the wind blown side so the snow was deeper than the the portion of the roof over the other unit.
A contractor is already on the scene to check out the scope of the damage to both units. Since the roof caved into the unit there was no outside debris or other damage around the building.
Nobody was at home during the incident and the homeowners of both units live outside the area.
Guevin made two videos of the collapse to show how important it is to get snow off South Lake Tahoe area roofs. They can be seen on the TDFD Twitter page here.: https://twitter.com/tahoefire.
The fire marshall notes an $80 roof rake can help prevent this type of harm to homes.