The cause of the roof collapse at the hall in Česká Třebová will be determined by assessments

Česká Třebová - The cause of the roof collapse of the new sports hall in Česká Třebová, which collapsed on Saturday evening during a floorball tournament, will be determined by expert assessments. In addition to the police assessment, the Pardubice Region, which was the investor of the construction for 58 million crowns, will have another assessment prepared. According to organizers, there were about eighty people in the hall at the time of the collapse, all managed to escape, two of them sustained minor injuries while fleeing.

"At first, we heard a cracking sound, it sounded like someone was bouncing a ball. Then suddenly a huge bang, I saw debris fall from the ceiling. We started running, it was incredibly fast," said an eighteen-year-old young man who, as an organizer, was sitting at the timer positioned roughly in the middle of the hall. Renáta Typlová, chairwoman of the Orlicko-Třebovsko Floorball Club, which co-organized the tournament of regional youth teams in the hall, describes the collapse of the structure similarly. "The structure began to collapse from the back gradually into the floor area. The beams were falling towards the playing field, it crumpled like a pile of cards. It happened quickly, fortunately, there was space to escape," she stated.

After the roof collapse, the hall was secured by the police, this morning several police officers were seen on site, and a fire department lift also arrived. From the adjacent school's building, it was evident that the entire part of the roof above the sports area had collapsed. Lenka Vilímková, spokesperson for the Orlickoústecká police, told ČTK this morning that the legal qualification had not yet been established, as an expert will first examine the crime scene. "We will wait for the result of that expert assessment," Vilímková said.

Pardubice Region Governor Martin Netolický told reporters in Č. Třebová today that the region would have the entire project assessed from study to occupancy permit. "Based on that, we want to find a solution with others, because it is unacceptable for us for the matter to drag on for a long time," Netolický said, estimating the damages to be in the tens of millions of crowns. According to the governor, work on removing the fallen roof should begin as soon as possible, and Netolický expressed hope that the hall would start serving the public by the end of the year. The tournament was the first event held in the hall, and a festive opening was planned for this afternoon, but the region canceled it.

Tomáš Zavřel, the general director of the construction company Profistav Litomyšl, which built the hall, told reporters today that it is currently impossible to say what caused the roof collapse. "There are many variants, let's leave the resolution to the expert team from both the investigative authorities and the Pardubice Region committee," Zavřel said.

According to the building's designer Tomáš Friš, it is unclear why the roof structure collapsed, he added that the structure was made of wooden trusses, which is a common method of construction. Before the roof collapse, about 25 centimeters of snow lay on the sports hall's roof, Friš does not believe that this was the cause of the accident. "The snow that is there today, I believe, is not an extreme load," Friš said, according to whom all standards were followed.

The hall is located on the premises of the Higher Vocational School and Technical Secondary School in Česká Třebová. In addition to students, the hall was to be used by sports clubs focused on floorball, volleyball, and basketball. The new hall has a rectangular layout measuring approximately 51 by 26 meters. There are six changing rooms in the facilities, accommodating a total of 72 athletes, along with showers.