The crane has started to lift the collapsed roof of the hall in Česká Třebová

Česká Třebová - The collapsed roof structure of the sports hall in Česká Třebová, which fell on January 14, is being lifted by a crane today under police supervision. A forensic expert will examine it. Some wooden parts had to be cut off by workers using a chainsaw.

"Using the crane, we will move each roof section to a safe place outside the hall, where investigators will be able to examine them. This has not been possible until now, examining the roof structure directly at the accident site would be risky and dangerous," said Tomáš Zavřel, director of the construction company Profistav Litomyšl, which was the general contractor for the building. According to him, work will likely continue next week.

The roof collapsed on the evening of January 14 during a floorball tournament. All eight dozen people managed to escape in time, two of them were slightly injured while fleeing. The police are investigating the incident as a general danger due to negligence. The site is being guarded by police officers, and after the inspection is completed, the region as the owner will ensure security of the building.

The damage caused by the roof collapse has not yet been assessed. If the outer walls are intact, the repairs could be estimated at around ten million crowns according to Michal Votřel, head of the property and building regulations department of the regional office. It will be necessary to rebuild the roof and lay a new floor.

"Everything must be properly documented and measured. After lifting the trusses, we will also access areas inside that we have not had access to until now, and we will investigate them. All of this will serve to prepare an expert opinion," said Lenka Vilímková, spokesperson for the Ústí nad Orlicí police, to ČTK. According to her, it will not be possible to rescue more than one truss today due to technical problems. Vilímková estimated the processing of the report to take several weeks to months.

The Pardubice region built the hall at a cost of 58 million crowns. It was to be used by the local Higher Vocational School and Technical Secondary School, located on its premises. The original gym was already outdated.

The Pardubice region will have an independent assessment of the entire building from project documentation to the commissioning of the building carried out. The Profistav Litomyšl company has also assembled its own expert team. The roof of the hall with a wooden truss structure was built for them as a subcontract by Cecolegno, a company specializing in wooden structures.

Initially, the region did not rule out that it might be necessary to demolish the hall and rebuild it entirely. It now seems that the hall can be repaired. According to regional governor Martin Netolický (ČSSD), the new roof should have a different structure. The region is claiming damages from the builder, and repairs are estimated to take five months.