I hope that I am seen as an optimist and I hold the view that as civil and structural engineers we in general serve society well. That is not to say that we should become complacent. Four roof collapses over the last few weeks reminds us that we need to be aware that we are not infallible.
The first of these collapses occurred in early January when the roof of an ice rink at Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria, Germany, collapsed. There were 15 fatalities. Snow had been falling for some time and there is some indication that the building, although still in use, was considered unsafe, as the local hockey club had called off a training session. The roof was of timber construction; it would not be right to speculate on the cause of the collapse, we have to wait for the enquiry's report.
This was followed by the failure in Poland in late January of the roof of a relatively modern steel-framed exhibition hall with a much larger loss of life, over 60 fatalities. Again there had been heavy snowfall.
As I write this there is a report in the New Civil Engineer, 9th February, of two more recent roof collapses, one involving part of a shopping mall in St Petersburg, Florida, USA, which occurred in early February after 400mm of rain had fallen. The second one in Toeing, Germany, again occurred following heavy snowfall. I am not aware of any fatalities following either of these collapses.
As mentioned above I would not wish to speculate on the causes of these failures—it is possible that they will all be different. However, I think one lesson we should learn is the importance of understanding the reasons for these collapses and, where possible, making the results of enquiries available to practising engineers so that the problems are less likely to recur. I believe it is part of the role of this journal to publish such information. On an on-going basis the confidential reporting scheme (CROSS) established by the Standing Committee on Structural Safety is designed to allow feedback from engineers and others who do have a concern over a matter of structural safety.
