The Associated Press
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — Customers and employees have safely escaped after the partial collapse of a Colorado thrift store’s ceiling.
Firefighters carefully searched through the rubble for several hours Friday after employees said they thought a shopper might not have made it out of the Salvation Army store in Grand Junction. But fire department spokesman Mike Page says crews and search dogs didn’t find anyone in the debris.
Part of the ceiling fell onto the metal building’s first floor around 3:30 p.m. There were 22 people in the store at the time.
Firefighters cut a hole through the side of the building and started looking through the rubble. One person was treated on site for respiratory problems and a firefighter was treated for a cut hand.
Crews had checked half the pile of rubble by Friday evening, and no one inside had responded to their calls, Page said. Also, nothing turned up on thermal imaging equipment that registers body heat.
“We’re just continuing to act like it’s a possibility that someone’s in there,” Page said.
Inside, firefighters were moving carefully because it was unclear how stable the building was. Page said a structural engineer was on hand to offer advice.
Only six of the 22 people in the store were in the section where about one-eighth of the first-floor ceiling collapsed.
A store employee told KKCO-TV in Grand Junction that some of the falling ceiling got hung up on a side wall, slowing the collapse.