ANAHEIM : Officials Studying Mall Repair Plans

When a 200-foot-long concrete stucco awning at an Anaheim mini-mall crashed to the ground last month, shop managers, city inspectors and engineers had few explanations.

Repair plans are under way at the mall located in the 700 block of N. Euclid Street, where the collapsed wall injured no one but scared shop workers and customers. Cars parked nearby were smashed by the collapsed awning, and the building suffered thousands of dollars of damage. But there are still few clues to the cause of the collapse.

“In my years here, I’ve never seen one crash like that,” said John Quan, a plan check supervisor for the city who is inspecting the repair plans. “I’ve seen a few roofs cave in, but never this.”

Wayne West, chief building official, speculated that the roofing material used for the awning was simply too heavy for the supporting structure, making it just a matter of time before the support gave way.

West said that while building inspectors approved the structure plans, they were not responsible for specifying the type of material to be used for the roofing.