Wisconsin Mall Parking Garage Partially Collapses, Crushing Multiple Vehicles

The Bayshore Mall in Glendale, Milwaukee, in October 2022. Google Maps

A parking garage at a busy mall that sits on the border between Glendale and Milwaukee in Wisconsin partially collapsed on Thursday, causing damage to multiple vehicles.

The collapse happened at about 12:15 p.m. local time at Bayshore Mall but no injuries were reported, local authorities said. Fire and law enforcement units were dispatched to the area immediately.

Photos and video footage shared on social media appear to show a large concrete slab section of the top two floors of the three-story garage lying on the first floor.

Thick snow can be seen covering the collapsed floor and rubble of the suburban Milwaukee shopping mall parking garage.

According to North Shore Fire Chief Robert Whitaker, a portion of the garage’s rooftop level collapsed onto the ramp between floors, which in turn sent piles of concrete down to ground level.

“Literally from the third floor down, it is a wide open hole,” Whitaker told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “The third floor is in the first floor right now.”

He added that a large pile of snow that had been plowed on the top floor of the parking structure “likely” played a part in the partial collapse, noting that it was heavy. It “would be fair to say” that the weight of the snow concentrated in one spot played a role, according to Whitaker.

Heavy Snow Hindering Clean-Up Efforts

Two cars were “significantly crushed” in the partial collapse, but officials were able to quickly confirm that no one was inside the damaged vehicles, authorities said.

Rescue teams that arrived on the site dug by hand and established that there were no victims.

“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,” North Shore Fire and Rescue said in a news release.

“This has made removal of the collapsed concrete and snow a challenge. To aid in access and to better assess exactly what is under the snow, large commercial heating units were bought in to melt the snow overnight with the goal of exposing both affected vehicles and the structural components from the collapse tomorrow.”

Glendale Mayor Bryan Kennedy told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that local authorities had viewed mall surveillance video and established that no one was in the area for 15 to 20 minutes before the collapse.

However, roughly two dozen empty vehicles remain stuck on the portion of the second and third floors, and getting them out will not be easy due to a giant hole that was left after the collapse.

He added that the parking structure of the mall had been constructed in 2005 or 2006 and that the city building inspector had recently been on site.

‘Shook the Whole Building’

An employee at Rocky Rococo pizza who was working in a nearby building told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the collapse sounded “like a bomb.”

“It shook the whole building,” Darius Fox said. “It’s just a shock because nothing usually happens out here like that.”

The collapse comes as the Milwaukee area has received about 23.7 inches of snow since December, including 1.5 inches of wet sleet on Wednesday amid a strong winter storm, according to the National Weather Service.

National Weather Service meteorologist Denny VanCleve told the local newspaper that the snow and sleet on the ground on Thursday may have been deceiving and looked lightweight, but it was not.

He said the county saw a “total liquid equivalent” of between 0.9 and 1.2 inches from the winter storm, noting that one liquid equivalent is usually the same as ten inches of snow or between two and three inches of sleet.

“It can be deceiving,” he said. “It doesn’t seem like much but the piles are going to weigh much more than two inches of snow would.”