2013 disaster in Riga, Latvia
On 21 November 2013 the roof of a Maxima shopping centre in the Zolitūde neighbourhood of Riga, Latvia, collapsed at 17:44 local time resulting in the deaths of 54 people, including three rescue workers, and injuries to another 41 people. An unknown number of people were able to leave the store on their own after the initial collapse. It was the worst disaster in Latvia since 1950, when the steamer "Mayakovsky" sank in Riga, killing 147 people. The disaster is often called Zolitūdes traģēdija ("Tragedy of Zolitūde" or "Zolitūde tragedy") by Latvian media outlets.
Building overview.
The building, which contained a Maxima supermarket and other businesses, was completed on 3 November 2011. Architectural design was by Zane Kalinka and Andris Kalinka from the local architectural firm Kubs. It was developed by Homburg Valda and built by the Re&amp;Re company. When the building was finished, it won the Latvian Building of the Year award. Several months before its opening, a fire broke out in the supermarket in which nobody was injured. At the time of the collapse, construction by Re&amp;Re was taking place. The area of the shopping centre was , and the building cost around €1.4 million. The shopping centre was located in a part of the building owned by SIA Tineo, but it was originally owned by The Homburg Group, which still owns the adjacent apartment building. Tineo is an offshore company owned by the Maxima group, a retail chain with operations mostly in the Baltic states, which owned the "Maxima XX" supermarket in the building. The company initially claimed it was a tenant of the building. The building also contained a bank, a beauty salon, a currency exchange, a newsagent's and a pet shop.
There were plans for a layer of topsoil thick on the roof; small recreational spots with benches, connected by cobblestone-paved paths, were planned for the resident of an apartment house that was part of the same complex. Before the collapse, construction of the green roof was in progress, as was construction of underground car parking in the basement, intended for residents of the building.
Collapse.
Eyewitnesses said that at around 16:21 a fire alarm was set off and there were announcements made that the store should be evacuated. It was later reported that the owner of the company which had installed the alarm said that it was unlikely that it was set off by dust from the roof starting to collapse, as it was set off near water pipes in the basement. The store's security verified that there was no fire and therefore did not carry out an evacuation, but rather treated it as a false alarm and called a technician to turn it off. The building collapsed shortly after the technician arrived and he was not able to verify why the alarm had gone off. A board member of "Maxima Latvija" said that security had followed protocol, which was not to evacuate if there was no visible danger. According to some reports, the smaller shops in the retail centre, unlike Maxima, were evacuated and closed. Many customers, however, stayed in the supermarket, encouraged by the calm demeanor of Maxima's employees. Some employees of the smaller shops also started returning to their workplaces after being told by security that it was a false alarm. Security personnel verified the alarm to be related to welding construction in the basement.
The roof caved in at 17:41 local time. Because the collapse occurred during peak shopping hours, it was suspected that at least a hundred people may have been in the supermarket during the incident. Eyewitnesses said the roof collapsed over the checkout counters, where many people were waiting to pay, and over the dairy, alcoholic beverage and household chemicals sections. This was confirmed by police who released a map based on CCTV footage just before the collapse. It was later reported that the collapse started over counters 6, 7 and 8. There were more than 50 employees and an uncertain number of customers in the smaller shops in the retail centre, most of whom were able to escape before rescuers arrived. Most of the supermarket lost electrical power due to damage caused by the collapse, which resulted in the main door locking and trapping several people inside; they had to break the glass to escape.
The firefighters, paramedics and police arrived at the scene within minutes. After the initial collapse, firefighters divided the building into four working areas. Although it had initially seemed that the remaining roof construction posed no further danger, at 19:04 another part of the roof collapsed over one of the previously designated work areas, trapping several firefighters, injuring twelve and killing three of them. By that time 20 people – most of those injured in the first collapse – had been rescued. The injured were transferred to the Pauls Stradins Clinical University Hospital, the Riga East Clinical University Hospital, the Riga Second Hospital, and the Traumatology and Orthopedic Hospital. One child was transferred to the Clinical University Hospital for Children.
Both before and after the second collapse, only firefighters were allowed to enter the building, and anyone inside was pulled out and brought to the ambulances parked just outside the store. After the second collapse, it was reported that only five firefighters were allowed to enter the building at a time, and that the rest were forced to wait outside because of the danger of further collapse. Each firefighter was allowed to spend only half an hour working. Bulldozers were used to clear the rubble. Mobile cranes were deployed at 21:27 to lift concrete slabs.
According to a Latvian Army tweet, 110 soldiers were on site on 21 November. Several tents were installed for the use of firefighters and ambulance workers by the military. Latvia was offered aid by several countries, however it was turned down as state and fire rescue service believed they already had the required manpower, equipment and experience for the rescue operation.
At least one silent period was used to listen for signs of life among the rubble; some cell phones were heard ringing. The use of thermal scanners and search and rescue dogs was also tried, however this proved unsuccessful as concrete rubble was too thick to detect warmth and dogs were distracted by the strong scent of household chemicals and alcohol that had leaked from broken packing.
Another fireman was reported to have been injured during clearing of the rubble in the early hours of 23 November.
Another collapse occurred at 17:52 on 23 November. None of the rescuers were harmed in this subsequent collapse. As the third collapse compromised the structural integrity of the roof, rescue efforts were stopped at around 19:00. A representative of the paramedics said that, given the severity of injuries the bodies of the latest victims had, they had no hope anyone else might still be alive.
The rescue was restarted the following afternoon. There were no more victims found in the rubble and rescue work was finished on 25 November.
Aftermath.
After the disaster, the Mayor of Riga Nils Ušakovs gave an order to inspect all building projects carried out by Re&amp;Re.
The developer of the apartment building put additional construction on hold. The apartment building itself was not damaged in the incident.
Maxima agreed to pay compensation to the victims and families of the dead.
The fatalities have been identified as 53 citizens of Latvia, and 1 citizen of Armenia.
Investigation and cause.
The inquiry into the collapse began just minutes after it occurred. The police investigated three theories: first, that there was an error in structural design, and authorities overseeing planning had been negligent; second, that the cause is related to initial building procedures; third, that it was caused by the construction of the green roof.
In a related case on 27 February 2014 a man was fined for signature forgery on documents related to construction works in 2011. The police announced this finding in March, but did not disclose any further information. Latvian Television ran a report in April alleging that the person fined was owner of a now liquidated company MONCE – a subcontractor hired to install the metal constructions of the building by the manufacturer of the constructions Vikom Industry. Instead of hiring a certified building engineer to oversee the installation, the company had forged the documents using the name of an engineer, whom they previously had offered a job and paid him a token salary of 5.95 lats a month from January to April 2011, which he actually never received.
The investigation of the cause of collapse was hindered by the collapsed building still being unsafe to enter. The remaining constructions were reinforced by March 2014. From April 2014, investigators were finally able to enter the building, where they recovered evidence buried by the third collapse of the roof and carried out investigation experiments – a controlled collapse of the remaining section of the roof and controlled fires, to test what loads the roof could carry and if the building's structures could have been compromised in the fire which occurred during its construction. The preliminary findings from the controlled collapse, which took place from 14 to 17 April showed prolonged deformation of the metal support structures, which started well before the target weight of the roof was reached and ended with the constructions eventually breaking, suggesting that the roof was built improperly and the actual collapse was not caused by a sudden change, but by overloading structures for a prolonged period of time and possibly metal fatigue. Two controlled fires were set on 27 May. The police did not disclose preliminary results of this experiment and said that they aim to complete investigation in late fall. On 10 June 2014 it was announced that a separate criminal inquiry has been launched to verify findings of State Labour Inspectorate, which reported work safety violations in Maxima. The police concluded investigation on the site on 28 July 2014.
In January 2015 the first suspects were named – construction engineer Ivars Sergets, design expert Andris Gulbis and architect Andris Kalinka. In addition the assets of HND Grupa (a company owned by Sergets) and Kubs (owned by Kalinka and his sister) were frozen. It is unclear what the architect is suspected for as both the investigators and his representatives refused to comment. Sergets is suspected of making an error in the designs of the building's roof constructions. Gulbis is suspected of negligence as he was supposed to inspect and approve the design, but failed to notice the error. Prosecutor general Ēriks Kalnmeiers cautioned that the investigation is still ongoing and there will be more suspects. He said that the way the building was designed meant it was bound to collapse, however, the investigation had uncovered other factors that contributed to the collapse occurring at a particular time and therefore resulting in deaths, as well as numerous unrelated violations, which speak of a general tendency to disregard regulations, therefore everyone who had been neglectful contributed to the accident and should be held responsible.
The trial began on 8 December 2015 for the 9 accused persons: construction engineer Ivars Sergets, architect Andris Kalinka, construction expert Andris Gulbis, construction inspector Mārtiņš Draudiņš, head of construction at the Re&amp;Re Staņislavs Kumpiņš, representatives of the Riga construction board Jānis Balodis, Marika Treija and Aija Meļņikova and employee of the Maxima supermarket Inna Šuvajeva. The trial was held in Ķīpsala International Exposition Centre outside court buildings due to the several hundred people involved, with 263 named as victims and 144 as witnesses.
Verdicts were delivered on 18 February 2020. Eight of the nine defendants were acquitted. The building's civil engineer Ivars Sergets was sentenced to six years in prison for making gross errors in the structural calculations, which directly led to the collapse.
Initial speculations on the cause.
According to Re&amp;Re's preliminary report, the cause was likely a design error. The report is a result of three independent civil engineers' examination of the project documentation. The rooftop garden was included in the original design, but the building was still "designed with insufficient load carrying capacity, three times less than required". The report states that the main reasons for the collapse are faulty estimation of the maximum load to be carried by the roof, and the design of the connections in the structural steel supporting the roof.
According to Ivars Sergets, the owner of HND Grupa which