Bend’s former Ray’s Food Place roof collapses

More roofs, large and small, collapsed from the weight of wet, heavy snow Wednesday as rain fell across much of Central Oregon. The latest toll included a long-shuttered Bend supermarket and part of a Prineville tire warehouse.

Bend Fire Battalion Chief Dave Howe said the call was received at 9:12 a.m. and that about two-thirds of the roof of the former Ray’s Food Place collapsed in the center of the 47,050-square-foot building, with no one inside. The market, at 210 Southwest Century Drive, closed in late 2013 after its parent company declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The first crews on scene made sure there was no life hazards, notified the owner’s representative, cordoned off the building and sure there were no imminent secondary collapses, Howe said. The roof over the coolers and other machinery was still intact, he added.

The building was turned over to the property management firm, which will place secure fencing around the structure, Howe said. It appeared more of the roof collapsed later in the day.

Howe told NewsChannel 21’s Dani Fried on scene two sections of the roof had collapsed and there were concerns more of the roof could come down

“As it rains, all it’s doing is building up more weight on the roof,” Howe said. “Because the support for that roof on this side is weakened or possibly gone, we’re concerned that the section that sticks out could go down.”.

Deschutes County property tax records list the owner of the former grocery site as Eugene-based Forum Westside LLC and the value of the building, built in 2000, at nearly $3.3 million, with the 3.74-acre site valued at nearly the same amount.

There also was a roof collapse on a portion of a Les Schwab Tires warehouse in Prineville, in an area the company said was little-used.O.

There were no reports of injuries in either instance, or at a roof collapse Wednesday morning of a detached garage on Southwest Cleveland Avenue in Bend.

The latest roof collapses come after a string that included a former wood products mill in Prineville, a large vehicle storage building near Bend’s Old Mill and last week’s collapse of the Kenwood School gym’s roof on Bend’s Westside. Again, thankfully, there were no reports of injuries in those incidents, as thousands of Central Oregonians shoveled school, business and home roofs.

More Bend apartment carports also reportedly collapsed overnight as rain and warmer temperatures arrived after weeks of snow and sub-freezing temperatures.

The rain, warmth and wind also turned roads packed with weeks of snow into very messy commuter routes as large “ponds” of melted snow and rain also challenged drivers.

Wednesday morning, the National Weather Service issued an urban and small stream flood advisory for the Bend-Redmond area, until 4:15 p.m., due to the combination of rain and melting snow.

We’ll have complete team coverage of the collapses and your Local Alert Weather forecast at 4 on Fox and 5, 6 and 7 on KTVZ.