When the roof caved in: The story of ‘Cave-On Foods’ at Burnaby’s Station Square

It’s a slice of Burnaby history that changed training and education regulations for architecture and engineering throughout BC—and it came with a punny (albeit morbid) name: ‘Cave-on Foods.’

April 23, 1988, was a big day in the new Station Square development just next door to Metrotown. It was the grand opening of a brand new Save-On Foods location.

To mark the occasion, the store held a special sale for senior citizens—about 600 people showed up, hosted by around 370 store employees.

Just minutes after opening, however, about 6,400 sq ft of the rooftop parkade collapsed into the middle of the store’s produce section. Twenty cars also plummeted into the store.

Incredibly, there were no fatalities, although 21 people were sent to hospital with injuries (including then-mayor Bill Copeland).

“‘If a builder erect a house for a man and do not make its construction firm, and the house which he built collapse and cause the death of the owner of the house, that builder shall be put to death.’ — The Code of Hammurabi, c. 2250 B.C.”

So begins a colourfully-written report into the incident by Dan J. Closkey, who was commissioned by the provincial government to look into how the collapse happened and how to prevent similar occurrences in the future.

(Spoiler alert: no builders were put to death in this case.)

Closkey wrote that customers had just begun to peruse the grocery store, some picking up English cucumbers and others checking the price of lettuce, when a sudden and loud cracking sound was heard.

At the same time, an overhead pipe burst and began spraying water all over the cheese section.

“On the rooftop parkade, photographer Greg Kinch was putting his camera gear away when he heard a crunch which sounded like a large truck hitting a cement barricade. He turned around to see what had happened and saw two rows of cars ‘bouncing up and down,’” wrote Closkey.

Meanwhile, inside the store, mayor Copeland noticed a ventilating duct had sagged. Hearing “popping and cracking” noises, the former firefighter started telling employees to leave in case something came down.

“I could see the distortion of the post, and looking up from that you could see that there was distortion above, on the beam, and I knew at that moment that something disastrous was going to happen,” Copeland told the 10-day inquiry into the incident.

As customers started to make their way out of the store—some still stopping at the check-out counter to purchase their groceries—more people started noticing that something was wrong. Eventually, Overwaitea (which operates the Save-On Foods brand) vice-president Jim Boyson realized a cave-in was imminent, and everyone was told to leave the store immediately.

But it was a little too late.

“Estelle Birch and a girlfriend watched the ceiling ‘come down very slowly, and (we) got out of there fast. They gave us a choice to go out the left or the right, and my girlfriend and I chose the right which was a good thing because everything was flying at the other end. And that’s when that air hit everybody, just like a tornado going through,’” the report reads.

“Elsie Barber said the gust knocked her down ‘and then all I knew, people picked me up, then I looked, my feet were wet, but my shoes were off my feet.’”

Others found themselves falling over their fellow shoppers, and there were reports of some broken bones.

One Save-On employee, Larry Nichols, was unable to get out of the “danger zone” in time and ended up pinned under bent steel and broken concrete, suffering a crushed pelvis in the disaster.

For the most part, however, Closkey wrote that the evacuation of the store was done in a quick and orderly fashion. He also credited the mayor and store employees, among others, with saving many customers from being injured by the falling roof.

But this was a disaster waiting to happen, Closkey said.

“Evidence presented to the inquiry showed that the beam was greatly underdesigned and the beam column assembly lacked essential lateral supports,” he wrote.

“Failure was inevitable—if not under April 23 loads, then certainly under full service loads.”

The commission found that the underdesign was due to miscalculations in the structural engineer’s office, and said a lapse of communication and instruction between various parties contributed to the roof collapse.

The conclusion led to major changes in standards for the engineering and architecture industries in British Columbia.

Closkey noted that while the general public expected building inspectors to have the biggest role in determining a development’s adherence to safety standards, they actually only do a “cursory inspection” of large buildings.

Rather, he said, architects and engineers must take full responsibility for ensuring their projects are in compliance with the building code, with inspectors playing only an administrative role.

That was one of 19 recommendations Closkey made to the provincial government. Some of the other major recommendations included requiring structural engineers to pass a special examination before they could become qualified, and requiring engineering firms to be registered with the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists British Columbia.

He also recommended that the province establish standards of practice for major building design, drawings, and calculations.

As Burnaby Now reports, four engineers involved in the development were found guilty several years later of incompetence, negligence, or professional misconduct.

Closkey’s report found that there was no wrongdoing by the City of Burnaby, which simply played an administrative role in issuing a building permit. Nor was there any fault by Save-On Foods, which was a tenant in the development bought by Wesbild Developments and Station Square Developments in 1986.

The store operated until 2013, when it was demolished and replaced with the Station Square development that exists at the site today—a mixed-use development that was just officially completed a few weeks ago.