GLENDALE, Wis. — No injuries have been reported after a parking garage partially collapsed at Bayshore Mall Thursday afternoon.
North Shore Fire and Rescue Chief Robert Whittaker said the department was called to the Silver Spring parking garage around 12:15 p.m. Thursday.
WATCH: Latest update from Chief Whittaker
The initial response was a large number of resources including the Milwaukee Fire Department, a special collapse team, and the Regional Heavy Urban Rescue Team.
Crews investigated and found the third floor collapsed onto the second, causing the second floor to collapse onto the first in a "pancake-like collapse," the chief said.
Officials knew of two vehicles in the collapse zone. North Shore Fire/Rescue says they were able to confirm with the car owners that they were safe.
Chief Whittaker said he's fairly confident based on security footage that there was no one in the collapse zone.
Now, crews are working with engineers to ensure the structure is not at risk for further collapse.
Crews then began digging by hand to confirm there were no victims. Security footage was also reviewed from around the time of the incident. After reviewing the footage, Unified Command members determined there was no indication that there were any victims within the collapse zone.
Dozens of other cars are trapped on the second and third floors of the structure.
"Bayshore is facilitating the retrieval of belongings from vehicles. The vehicles themselves will remain there until the ramp is rebuilt or a temporary ramp can be designed to safely extract those vehicles," Glendale Mayor Bryan Kennedy said.
TMJ4 News cameras show some rubble and mostly snow inside the ground floor of the parking building.
Roads in the area were closed off and traffic was diverted out of the area.
TMJ4 News has spoken to several people on the scene, who say they had cars inside and have no idea when it will be safe to retrieve them if they haven't been crushed.
Chief Whittaker said it could take months for people to retrieve their vehicles from inside. The ramp that collapsed was the only entrance and exit for the structure.
The news comes after a heavy snow/ice storm Wednesday and Thursday. Some areas got up to a foot of snow while other areas got little snow but plenty of ice.
North Shore Fire/Rescue said in a statement Thursday evening, "The collapse area is comprised of not only structural components of the garage, but also a significant amount of heavy and wet snow from last-night’s snowfall. This has made removal of the collapsed concrete and snow a challenge."
Large commercial heating units were brought in to melt the snow overnight. Officials hope this will expose both affected vehicles and the structural components from the collapse Friday. Representatives from the fire department and Bayshore will meet Friday morning to reassess the melting snow.
The community is asked to stay away from the structure while operations continue.
“We dodged a bullet on this one, we certainly did,” Mayor Kennedy said during a news conference Thursday afternoon.
Officials say it will take months to repair.
"The parking structure between Trader Joe's and Kohl's will be closed for quite some time," Mayor Kennedy said. "Shoppers at Trader Joe's, Five Guys and the other retailers in that vicinity can park in the surface lot in front of the Trader Joe's store. Visitors to Kohl's and the shops in that part of the town center have multiple surface lots to utilize."
Bayshore Mall released the following statement Thursday afternoon:
"BAYSHORE is aware that there was a partial collapse of the 2nd floor of the Silver Spring Parking Garage. We are not aware of any injuries at this time. The Glendale Fire and Police Departments are currently on the scene and will be issuing a news release update shortly. Guests and employees who park on the second and third floor will not be able to access their vehicles at this time and we will stay in close communications to update everyone as we learn more. Kurt Gruber, Bayshore’s director of security is onsite managing this situation."
Inspection, maintence of Bayshore's parking structure
The garage was built in 2005 and 2006. The I-Team went to Glendale City Hall to look through inspection and maintenance records for the parking structure but were told the records are not readily available and an open records request would need to be filed.
According to North Shore Fire Chief Robert Whitaker, his department does annual inspections on occupied buildings but he says a parking garage would not be classified as an occupied space. So it's unclear how often this kind of structure is inspected, if at all.
The Department of Safety and Professional Services (DSPS) oversees commercial building inspectors for the state. It says, parking garages are subject to the commercial building code and they do inspect them during the construction process to ensure compliance with applicable codes. However, DSPS does not perform annual maintenance or fire department inspections. DSPS says those would be performed by the local fire department or a local inspector. Because this ramp is in Milwaukee County, DSPS says the county would handle the plan reviews and inspections.
Glendale Mayor Bryan Kennedy says the city does not inspect these garages but rather an outside inspector is brought in to do so since Bayshore is privately owned.
"There are a series of inspections that take place," Kennedy said. "It's not just Bayshore's engineers that sign off on their own work. There are state inspectors as well."
Woman says her car is stuck in structure's rubble
Several cars are still parked in that structure. Officials told TMJ4 they know at least two cars in the rubble.
One car belongs to Cassandra Ploeger.
"I love my car," Ploeger said. "I named it and everything."
Ploeger's beloved Hyundai is now under all the rubble from the collapse.
"The police called me and they just said the structure has collapsed and that my car was damaged," Ploeger said. "It's definitely stressful. I'm not gonna have a car for awhile."
Ploeger's co-worker Morgan parked in the same structure on the other side.
"It's nerve-racking that could have been my car," Morgan said.
While Morgan's car is not damaged, she too is left in limbo.
"I'm not sure really when we will be able to go in and get the cars," Morgan said.
Both women say the inconvenience is manageable knowing no one was hurt.
WATCH VIDEOS FROM THE SCENE:
This is a developing story. TMJ4 News will update this article as we learn more.
