Snow the likely cause of second building collapse in Elgin in three days

No one was injured early Monday when the building that housed Imago Events in Elgin collapsed, the second collapse in town in three days that fire officials believe was caused by snow.

Elgin Fire Department Chief Rob Cagann said the building at 216 Prairie St. was "a complete loss."

"About 85 to 90% of the building is on the ground," Cagann said. He said snow and ice accumulation on the roof was the likely cause.

The building dates to 1925 and was originally the Elmer Daus Packard dealership. As Imago Events, it had various spaces to host weddings, banquets and other events.

While the building was empty at the time of the collapse, Cagann said "what is really disconcerting is that there were people in it just yesterday."

In a Facebook post, Imago owners Mark and Aimee Novelli said they would contact clients in the coming weeks to help them relocate their scheduled events.

"This is a devastating loss, and we appreciate your patience while we process this event," they said in their post. "Our hope and plans are to reopen, but we have lots of details to navigate."

While Cagann couldn't definitively say what caused the collapse, "our best guess at this point is that it was due to snow and ice loads on the building."

The collapse is similar to one Saturday at a vacant building on the 300 block of Brook Street. In both instances the fire department was called after reports of an explosion, but both times officials found no evidence of an explosion or fire.

Initial estimates from officials put the damage from that collapse at more than $600,000.

Both buildings had bow string truss roofs, which consist of an arched beam above and a straight beam below and are used to span wide, column-free spaces. The city is reaching out to other businesses in similarly constructed buildings.

City of Elgin Communications Manager Molly Gillespie said they've reached out to about a half dozen building owners, suggesting they contact roofing professionals if they have concerns.

Cagann said the weather has been a challenge this year. Twelve inches of snow has fallen in Elgin in February, on top of 13 inches in the last couple of weeks of January. Added to that is a string of arctic cold weather.

"We haven't had any thawing for weeks, so any snow we get keeps accumulating and compressing into ice, which adds quite a weight load to these buildings," he said

Cagann and city officials stressed they don't want people taking chances trying to clear the snow themselves.

"We certainly don't want to advocate anyone going up on these roofs," Cagann said.