Riga supermarket roof collapse
Area of the site on 23 November 2013
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| Time | 17:41 UTC+2 |
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| Date | 21 November 2013 |
| Location | Priedaines iela 20, Zolitūde, Riga, Latvia |
| Coordinates | 56°56′38″N 24°1′3″E / 56.94389°N 24.01750°ECoordinates: 56°56′38″N 24°1′3″E / 56.94389°N 24.01750°E |
| Cause | Design flaw |
| Deaths | 54 |
| Non-fatal injuries | 55 |
On 21 November 2013 the roof of the Zolitūde shopping centre in the Zolitūde neighbourhood of Riga, Latvia, collapsed at 17:41 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 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&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 market in which nobody was injured. At the time of the collapse, construction by Re&Re was taking place. The area of the shopping centre was 4,750 m2 (51,100 sq ft), 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 owns 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 20–30 centimetres (7.9–11.8 in) 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.
Eyewitnesses said that at around 16:21 a fire alarm was set off and there were announcements made that the store should be evacuated. Security personnel verified this to be related to welding construction in the basement and switched off the alarm. It was later reported that the owner of the company which had installed the alarm said that it was designed to detect fire emergencies. He said it is unlikely that the alarm 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 store, 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. It has also been reported by witnesses that at around 17:00 the alarm was turned off.
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