Safeway Fire (apartments, house, buy)

[AZgarden]

I was briefly in Phx yesterday but thankfully did not see anything. Why does Safeway put flat roofs on their stores? Seems like a real invite for calamity. All those items burned to a crisp. My daughter said it's a big "fire sale". LOL But thankfully no one was hurt. Even the bank money gone. I saw it on TV and thought about all those people who shop there but can't anymore. Phx Firefighters rock !!!

[KO Stradivarius]

Flat roofs are common everywhere, even back east where snow and ice cause even more weight concerns. I saw the "flat roof" statement in the news story, but I don't get it.

[Ponderosa]

Not too many commercial properties with pitched roofs out there. The driving factor is HVAC and other equipment needed for a large building. They are not really flat. Usually problems arise when the drains plug. This is a great time though to warn everyone - NEVER buy a house with a flat roof. They all leak sooner rather than later.

[KO Stradivarius]

Quote from the latest news story:

"Capt. Rob McDade said fire investigators are on scene looking at the possibility that there was a partial roof collapse to the rear of the store that broke a gas line and damaged the main electrical box.

McDade said a microburst in the area dropped a large amount of rain prior to the fire and the flat roof of the store could have collected rain from previous storms this week."

It doesn't sound like it was only the fact that the roof was flat. Snow and ice collect on roofs up north and east, and roofs seldom ever collapse. Not even after a good amount of snow falls then temps exceed 32 F and it starts to melt and becomes wet snow. Maybe it might leak. And I am old, so I have a lot of history but also a poor memory...

If the roof collapsing from rainwater did indeed cause the fire, it would seem that either the design and/or construction was substandard (not sloped toward the drains and/or not strong enough), or preventive maintenance was not properly done (such as cleaning the drains and downspouts). Otherwise, how could it have "collected rain from previous storms this week." Water does weigh about 8.3 lb/gal, but it should not be collecting over the course of days. It should only collect during the actual storm itself, if the rate of rainfall exceeds the rate of drainage.

[JGMotorsport64]

Originally Posted by Ponderosa

Not too many commercial properties with pitched roofs out there. The driving factor is HVAC and other equipment needed for a large building. They are not really flat. Usually problems arise when the drains plug. This is a great time though to warn everyone - NEVER buy a house with a flat roof. They all leak sooner rather than later.

While this is true the converse is also true, it costs almost nothing to fix or replace a flat roof.

Nobody can see your patchy white paint and roof tape but they can see when your shingles don’t match.

[asufan]

The flat roofs aren't completely flat of course, there's a parapet wall that is flat which hides the mechanicals and you can't see the slight pitch so it appears completely flat.

[AZ Manager]

Could you imagine how tall a big store like that would be if they pitched the roof like a home. One fire and people pick on the roof... What about the other thousands, or millions, of buildings that haven't had a fire.

[HollyhockGarden]

We live about five miles away and could see the smoke. There are homes and apartments close by the location; I can imagine they must have some smoke impact. The Fire depts all worked together coming to fight this fire, so glad no one was hurt in this fire. I understand Safeway is going to try to place the employees in other stores; they already have said they are going to do this with the employees involved in the two previously announced store closures. There are only so many positions available.

Again,so glad that no one was hurt.

[Cloudy Dayz]

Originally Posted by KO Stradivarius

Flat roofs are common everywhere, even back east where snow and ice cause even more weight concerns. I saw the "flat roof" statement in the news story, but I don't get it.

I think it is interesting that all Safeway stores built between the 1950s and the 1970s had curved or peaked roofs. That was Safeway's trademark. But they abandoned that design when they built larger super stores in the 1980s. It's too bad, because those Safeway stores were really well built. Many of the old buildings, that Safeway didn't tear down, have been repurposed for other uses and still exist today. If this store had been the old design, it's highly unlikely that this fire would have occured.

Mid-Century Modern Safeway Supermarkets

[BigEinAz]

If it truly was a microburst, the wind loading alone could have caused the collapse. I guess one would have to view the Doppler radar to see if the storm tracked directly over the building.