A partial roof collapse at a Kansas City Family Dollar store left one person dead and three others injured. But one resident of the area says that the tragedy could have been prevented if people had only listened to her warnings.
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According to Fox4KC, fire and rescue workers were called to the store on the afternoon of July 27 after part of the front of the building collapsed. Noah Banks, a frequent shopper who lives across the street from the store, had noticed structural issues with the building for a while and was doing her best to warn others of the potential danger.
According to KMBC, she sent a text message warning to friends the day before the building collapse that now seems eerily prophetic.
“I’ve been watching this for quite a while now, please be careful the next time you go to Family Dollar, it’s falling,” she wrote.
In an interview with the outlet after the incident, Banks said all of the suffering was completely preventable.
“I believe that man did not have to lose his life because they were aware of it. That lady did not have to suffer trauma the way she did if preventative measures had been taken,” she said.
According KSHB Kansas City, the building had structural issues for years, after a car crashed into the store in October 2016, damaging a support beam. Although it is unclear if the city was notified about the damage at the time of the crash, there is record of a 311 complaint from July 25 that the building was “tilting.” As of this post, was unsure if anyone from Kansas City’s Dangerous Building department did an inspection of the building before the tragedy occurred.
City officials say they are investigating the events so they can make sure something like this never happens again.
“I’m not prepared to make any sort of blanket statement on any policy that needs to be reviewed, but, of course, anytime a tragedy like this occurs that appears to be preventable I think that we should hold accountable property owners and business owners who threaten the lives of our citizens,” KCMO City Council Member Eric Bunch told KSHB Kansas City.
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