Roof Collapses at O'Reilly's Auto Parts After Downpour

A portion of the roof at O'Reilly's Auto Parts store in Healdsburg collapsed just before 7:30 p.m. Monday, a likely result of the heavy downpour earlier in the evening, fire officials said.

No one was hurt or injured, but products inside the store, at 515 Healdsburg Ave., sustained heavy water damage, said Healdsburg Fire Chief Steve Adams.

The collapse was due to a large I-beam in the attic that cracked loose during the solid rainfall, Adams said.

"They're really lucky," Adams said Tuesday. "It's very rare that you just have one I-beam that cracks -- they're all tied together so usually it's the whole roof."

Both the O'Reilly's store and adjacent Goodwill Industries store were shut down so that engineers can stabilze the building and contractors could get in to restore the roof, Adams said. A structural engineer was on the premises Tuesday to shore up the structures, he said.

Goodwill employees said they will still be available to collect donations using a truck on their parking lot south of the store. Donation hours will remain at 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Healdsburg Police said they got the call from O'Reilly's at 7:19 p.m. and referred the incident to the fire department. Adams said he and his crew arrived just before 8 p.m.

According to Adams, employees said they heard a loud noise during the downpour just before sundown. After that, they said, there were some crackles and crunch noises, culminating in the roof collapse about an hour later.

"They said they saw the ceiling tiles caving in," Adams said. "When we got there, there was visible damage -- and the roof had collapsed."

Adams said he had firefighters turn off all utilities and had all the employees at both stores leave the buildings. Then he secured the entrances, closing both stores down -- Goodwill included, because "they're all tied together," Adams said.

Further details on the age of the roof or buildings or why the I-beam cracked and the roof collapsed were not available Tuesday.

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