Case Study Of The Maxima Supermarket Disaster

The Maxima supermarket disaster was a tragedy that occurred in Riga, Latvia on November 21, 2014. The Republic of Latvia is a country in Northern Europe and is surrounded by modern day Estonia, Lithuania, Russia, Belarus and a small portion of Sweden..The supermarket opened in 2011 as a retail store that sold many different types of merchandise. The store was connected to a new apartment complex that was built across from the supermarket and was also built by the same construction company. The building was developed by Homburg Valda. The architectural design was by Zane Kalinka and Andris Kalinka from the local architectural firm of KUBS. The cause of this disaster was due to the collapse of the roof of the supermarket. The building was five hundred square meters large; once the roof collapsed the entire structure was destroyed. There were many people shopping in the market at the time of the collapse. Once the roof collapsed, emergency vehicles were at the scene in minutes. There was up to thirteen fire trucks at the supermarket to help rescue the victims. However, there was a second collapse that occurred after the rescue mission had already begun which resulted in the deaths of three Latvian firefighters. Despite the emergency efforts made by the Latvian police and fire department, fifty-four people were killed in this disaster and forty-one were left injured. There was a green garden being constructed on the roof of the building of the collapse. Many controversies and speculations were drawn from the disaster. “The collapse was the biggest loss of life since Latvia became independent from the USSR in 1991.” There have been many possible causes to how and why the roof collapsed. Although there has not been one definite cause,...

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...ons have been inaugurated and practiced ever since the collapse. The Latvian government has gone above and beyond with running detailed and systematic structural inspections. They have invested millions in new industrial engineering firms and professional inspectors from all around the world to prevent such an event from happening again. RE&RE, the Latvian construction and restoration firm, has begun to work on the quality control in their designs and objects, to avoid any problems such as the superstore tragedy.

Although the Riga superstore disaster was one of the largest tragedies in the history of the country of Latvia, the country as a whole has come together and is still working together to mend the chaotic event. In order to avoid such events in the near future they have gone to great lengths and installed countless precautionary rules and regulations.