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No One Hurt After Roof Collapses At Hardware Store

By James Schugel, WCCO-TV

GLENWOOD, Minn. (WCCO) -- Part of the roof at a hardware store in Glenwood, Minn. collapsed Tuesday afternoon while employees were inside, according to the Pope County Sheriff's Office.

It happened around 4 p.m. at Wagner Hardware but crews remained on the scene hours later to make sure the gas was turned off and the area was safe.

Five employees of Wagner Hardware were in the building at the time. There were no customers inside at the time of the roof collapse. No one was hurt and no one is missing.

Owner Garrett Wagner said it sounded like thunder crashing down and you could actually feel the air pressure being sucked out of the room. One minute it was business as usual, the next, he and his employees are running for safety.

"The shelf blows out towards me. I run back into the back room and say, 'Hit the floor, the building is coming down,' I look at the screen and you can see the roof's collapsing. So I grabbed my coat, ran back through, calling for my guys, ran out through this door, calling, making sure everyone's fine," he said.

When the roof collapsed, the air pressure blew the doors open.

"It felt like I was in an action movie," said Darrick Anderson, an employee. "Just kind of getting pushed out. That sort of thing. I don't think I've ran that fast in 10 years."

Wagner said he hopes to rebuild the store but for now, he's just thankful everyone made it out.

"It's a miracle of God that no one got hurt," he said.

Authorities say they believe the accumulated snow on the roof caused the collapse. The extent of the structural damage is unknown at this time but it seems to be quite extensive.

None of the surrounding buildings were damaged in the incident.

The publisher of the local newspaper, Tim Douglass, said the roof of the same building collapsed about 15 years ago.

Glenwood Police, Glenwood Fire, Pope County Sheriff's Office, Starbuck Police, Starbuck Fire, Villard Fire, MnDOT and Glacial Ridge ambulances responded to the initial call.

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