‘We can’t get out of the store’: 911 calls detail supermarket collapse

Recently released 911 calls detail the moments after an east Las Vegas supermarket partially collapsed this month, briefly trapping about 25 people inside and injuring four.

The front awning collapsed shortly after 6 a.m. Aug. 13 at the La Bonita Supermarkets store near Desert Inn Road and Eastern Avenue. Someone inside quickly called 911.

“We can’t get out of the store because the roof is obstructing the exit,” one man told a 911 operator, who instructed him to gather everyone inside and try to escape out the back.

An employee who was taking a break outside also called.

“They don’t seem that injured,” he told a 911 operator. “They’re OK; they’re saying they’re OK.”

A Metropolitan Police Department officer later advised that more than two dozen people were still inside, and that it sounded like “some people are under the rubble.”

Each of the four people hurt suffered minor injuries, according to the Clark County Fire Department. The county building department deemed the structure unsafe for occupancy the day of the collapse and ordered it closed.

“At this moment we can only thank God that this happened so early in the morning and not during busier hours,” Armando Martinez, general manager of La Bonita Supermarkets, said in a statement that day.

Jessica Jordan-Tabares, a spokeswoman for the company, has said the store’s employees were granted a paid day off and offered support services. All employees who wanted to be relocated were transferred to another location of their choosing by Aug. 16.

The company did not respond to recent requests for comment.

No prior complaints

Officials with the state Occupational Safety and Health Administration are investigating the collapse; spokeswoman Teri Williams said the agency had not received any prior employee complaints about any La Bonita locations.

Clark County property records show that the location of the collapse was built in 1979. County spokeswoman Stacey Welling said a full structural inspection of the property likely hasn’t been required since, prior to the opening of what was once a Vons grocery store.

The former Vons did undergo an interior remodel in 1990, when a sign was installed, but Welling said an inspection would have been done only on the work affected by the scope of that permit.

County inspection records show that the store had to “replace a cracked beam due to normal wear and tear” in May 2015, replace an interceptor, which filters wastewater from kitchen sinks, in June 2016 and replace a fire panel in November 2017.

In May 2017, the building was “deemed to be in substantial compliance with fire, life safety and structural provisions of the adopted codes of construction,” a building department certificate of occupancy at the time stated. The building’s plumbing was last inspected and approved in June 2020.

Businesses affected

Employees and managers at nearby shops said business had slowed since the collapse.

“When La Bonita is busy, everyone’s busy,” said Scott Dao, manager of Foxy Nails, a salon in the same strip mall, at 2546 E. Desert Inn Road. “But with them closed, business is slow for everyone.”

Debris from the collapse has been cleared, but exposed framing could still be seen Wednesday, along the top of the building where the store’s sign used to be. Caution tape blocked off the area.

Aldo Madrazo, an employee at nearby La Neveria Ice Cream Shop, at 2482 E. Desert Inn Road, said he wasn’t working on the day of the collapse, so he didn’t see the immediate fallout, but he has noticed fewer customers since the store closed.

“The parking lot used to always be full, but now it’s pretty much dead all the time,” Madrazo said. “We still get our regulars in, but we used to get a lot of foot traffic from people shopping at La Bonita, and we’ve lost that.”

Contact Alexis Ford at aford@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0335. Follow @alexisdford on Twitter.