To the Editor:
I read your article "Fire-Retardant
Trusses at Risk" (Eight-Penny News,
2/94) with great interest — because
the "next wave" the article referred to
has arrived. My firm was recently
contacted by a commercial building
owner to investigate the catastrophic
collapse of the roof on a 10-year-old,
12,000-square-foot, two-story office
building in Laredo, Texas. The collapse
occurred during business hours
and could have had disastrous consequences
but for an alert employee
who looked into the attic space to
investigate the noises they had been
hearing. He noted some split trusses,
and got the building evacuated
moments prior to the collapse.
Our investigation resulted in an
opinion to the owner that the treated
trusses had failed structurally and the
failure was