The roof is exploding!

I have to state the obvious. Today’s collapsing of the roof at BC Place[wiki] was the hot topic across so many media outlets, and everyone in the world of blogging, at least here in Vancouver, was looking to be apart of the madness. Yes, Rebecca did make a post about it. I won’t deny that, but we were about 30 minutes late to the whole event as we were driving around the mayhem of slush covered roads in the GVRD. She just amended a post that she made earlier in the day to include a photo she snapped while on our return home.

The significance is nothing to sneeze at. I get that much. This is a huge landmark for Vancouver, and the issue runs deep. The winter olympics are coming, local officials might have over thought the longevity of the dome, and so on. I get it.

The inflated roof at B.C. Place stadium in Vancouver has collapsed, but no one is reported hurt.

The office of Vancouver Fire Chief Bob Smith says there are no injuries following the collapse of the roof of BC Place Stadium.

Emergency personnel are calling this a mechanical problem that caused the stadium’s fans to cut out and bring the roof down.

The fabric dome came down into the bowl of the stadium during a storm that brought wind and heavy, wet snow to the area. [cknw]

But holy crap, was there ever a rush to publish everyone’s vantage point of it all. While in the car, CKNW was doing their damnedest to cover the story to every last end of the catastrophe. Apparently someone made some sort of statement at some point just after the collapse that led one of their on air guys to to wonder about some cover up over some one somewhere being killed during the whole thing. Their coverage was a tad on the extreme, bizarre, and near insane side, but we were able to dissect the jest of the story from the outside in.

And honestly, what was the guy on that they were interviewing about the noise of the roof collapsing sounding like “zoo animals running through your kitchen”? I’ve never had the opportunity to have any sort of wild animal run through any of the households that I have lived in. I experienced some parties in college that might come close, but the sounds of zebras and elephants is something I’m not all too familiar with. He was on the field at the time of initial tear. Outside, people said it sounded like thunder. Inside, this dude was tripped out by the sounds of the circus parade punching a hole in the roof.

The various blogs from the area didn’t fail to amaze me though. I figured someone would, at the very least, have pictures on Flickr or YouTube when we got home late this afternoon, but this was nuts. The Vancouverite[1, 2, 3], Darren Barefoot, Breebop, Derrek Miller, Jeremy Latham, Metroblogging Vancouver, Beyond Robson[1, 2], and my good pals Dave Olsen and Alanah even weighed in. You all lived up to your expectations, and it was a rush to have your stuff up there as soon as you could. That’s what amazes me the most.

Everyone has their view, but there has to be a point where a roof collapsing on a sports stadium can only be done to a certain extent before it’s saturated. This has happened back in my home state a few times to the UNI-Dome[wiki], but they fixed the issue by slapping on a metal roof. Not saying that this can be easily solved in a similar way for BC Place, but don’t worry folks. Life will go on.

If it only took a phone call to fly in replacement trees for Stanley Park and a few weeks to make that look normal again, then we’d totally be in business.