On the 23rd of June, 2012, in the city of Elliot
Lake in Ontario, Canada, a segment of the rooftop parking deck at the Algo Center Mall collapsed,
smashing down through two floors of the shopping center. The incident, which claimed the lives of
two people and injured 22 more, lasted just a few short moments, but was the result of a slow,
quiet, corrosive process that had been going on for decades. The Algo Center Mall was opened
in August 1980. As the largest commercial complex in the area the mall acted as a community center
and regularly hosted events such as car shows, fundraisers for charities, antique appraisals
and local markets. The mall was a sizable 18,000 square meters (or a 190,000 square feet) and
on top of a plethora of stores and services also contained the 80-room Algo Inn (the largest
hotel and retirement residence in the area), a library, constituency offices, public health
offices and a grocery store. The building also happened to have rooftop parking. Despite
how important the mall was to the community the building was plagued with issues from the
beginning. From the 1990s, leaks were a pretty regular occurrence. It was commonplace to see
the floors of the mall littered with buckets while the ceilings were covered in a patchwork of
visible repairs. In 2008 the Bank of Nova Scotia branch in the mall had to close down for a week
to repair the damage caused by multiple leaks. While obviously inconvenient, these leaks were
only a prelude to the much greater disaster still to come. At approximately 2:20pm on the
23rd of June, 2012, a large section of the Algo Center Mall's rooftop - which also
doubled as its parking deck - collapsed, bringing thousands of pounds of concrete and metal
crashing down onto the floors below. Shoppers and staff, caught entirely unawares, fled as best
they could, evacuating even the unaffected areas of the mall as the whole building was now (quite
reasonably) believed to be structurally unstable. 22 people who escaped the mall did so with
injuries requiring treatment. Two further people inside the building at the time of the collapse,
however, were not so lucky. 37-year-old Lucie Aylwin and 74-year-old Doloris Perizzolo were
trapped in the rubble at the site of the collapse. Aylwin had been working at a lottery kiosk at
the mall, and Perizzolo had been her customer. Now the two were trapped together under
the dangerously unstable wreckage. A search and rescue team was on site within
hours of the collapse, but faced an incredibly complicated task. The building was at risk of
further structural failure - a situation only worsened by persistent rainfall that day. Despite
these conditions rescuers worked their way through the debris until they were close enough to the two
trapped women to hear signs of life. Before they could effect a rescue, though, a damaged escalator
began to fall and they were forced to retreat. By the early hours of the 25th of June the two
women had been trapped for more than a day. Their family and friends had
traveled to the site to keep a vigil, and rescuers rallied and brought in
more equipment to try and save them. A robotic arm was delivered to the site -
something which took another full day - and was used to safely clear the debris trapping the
women. By this time, however, it was too late. Both had passed away. Although there were signs
that Lucie Aylwin might have survived for quite some time and might have been saved had the
rescue operation been just a little bit swifter. An investigation revealed that the
decision to make the roof of the mall into a parking area had played
a huge role in the incident. Each day during the winter of many successive
years cars had been moving from the streets of Elliot Lake onto the roof of the mall, bringing
with them salt and road grit. This salt had sunk into the structure of the building, corroding
the metal supports which held the roof in place. To prevent this from happening a waterproof
membrane should have been installed to protect the supports from corrosion. No such membrane
was actually legally required by the building codes of the late 1970s and early 1980s, and so
nobody was overly concerned when plans to fit one fell through. Instead a contractor simply
patched up existing damage with sealant, a step which did nothing to fix the underlying
problem of seeping saltwater corroding supports. Poorly maintained rooftop parking may not have
been the only structural issue faced by the mall. Structural engineer John Kadlec, who was involved
in the building of the Algo Center Mall, claimed the project was marred by shoddy workmanship
from the beginning, with missing bolts, crooked columns, and rusted steel beams all being noted
as problems faced during construction. Kadlec was also confused by what he called the "unique
decision" to put the parking lot on the roof. Despite his reservations, however, Kadlec
signed off on the project, stating that at the time he believed the deficiencies had been
rectified. This was, ultimately, not the case. The aftermath of the Algo Center Mall collapse
was extensive and multifaceted. Unsurprisingly a class-action lawsuit was filed against the mall's
current and former owners, and construction and engineering professionals involved in the building
of the structure - a lawsuit which, as of May 2020, was still ongoing. An engineer named Robert
G H Wood, who signed off on a report declaring the mall as structurally sound mere weeks before the
collapse, was indicted on two counts of criminal negligence causing death and one count of criminal
negligence causing bodily harm. Ultimately the judge decided that there wasn't enough evidence
to find Wood guilty, although he did say that Wood should accept "moral responsibility"
for the incident, stating that his work was shoddy, sloppy, and even inadequate... even if
it didn't reach the levels of being criminal. The rest of the mall was demolished
following the partial roof collapse. The closure of the mall struck a
huge blow to the local economy. The mall had been a central part of the Elliot
Lake economy, employing hundreds of locals and housing numerous community services such
as public health offices and the library. Ongoing structural problems notwithstanding, for
many in the Elliott Lake community the mall had been their main social outlet, and its loss
was keenly felt. Many people and businesses left Elliot Lake following the collapse. A new
mall named Pearson Plaza was opened in 2016, representing for many a potential fresh start for
the community. Nowadays, however, Elliot Lake is perhaps most well known as a popular retirement
community. In addition to the local impacts, the disaster drew attention to the government's
plans to cut federal funding for emergency services - including the search and rescue team
involved in the agonizingly slow rescue attempts. In 2012 their budget had already been cut by one
million dollars as compared to the previous year. Thankfully the collapse of the Algo Centre Mall
helped to turn the tide on this trend. Following the report made by the Elliott Lake Inquiry the
Ontario government allotted an additional $2.5 million into emergency response measures. this
provided funding for specialized rescue situations such as building collapses and chemical attacks
and contaminations. While these incidents are incredibly rare, they do still happen... and the
equipment and resources that rescue personnel have on hand when they do can become not just a budget
item, but life or death for innocent people. This video was made in
collaboration with Brick Immortar. Brick is something of an expert when it comes
to malls. On his channel he explores dead malls and tells the stories behind them, and also covers
a few civil engineering failures here and there. He's put together his own take on this disaster
and we've launched our videos simultaneously. I touch on how important the mall
was to the community in this video, but with his insight Brick really gives
you a feel for what the mall was like, and puts it in context in a way that I never
could. Every disaster is a complicated story and this one is no exception. If you want
to go deeper on this particular story, go watch his video where you can learn more about
the delay in the rescue operation, the impact on the local community, and how malls in Canada might
be a little different from malls in your country.
