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Crews working to find missing person in Vancouver building after roof collapse

Eight people in a room beside collapsed area removed from a second-floor window
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THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graeme Roy file photos

One person is missing after a rooftop parking lot collapsed in East Vancouver yesterday (July 14).

Vancouver Fire Rescue chief Karen Fry said in a tweet that crews are working to find one unaccounted-for individual.

Eight people were in a room beside the collapsed area and crews used a ladder truck to reach a second-floor window and remove them late Thursday.

Two of the victims were treated in hospital, but their conditions had not been updated overnight

Vancouver’s Heavy Urban Search and Rescue crew, a specialized team that responds to major structural collapses, was in charge of removing concrete and other debris from the search area.

That work was expected to continue through Friday.

Fire officials have said a small bobcat-style loader was working on the roof and drilling was underway on a section of the parking lot when the collapse happened at about 1 p.m. Thursday.

The loader and a piece of pavement roughly three metres by four metres dropped from the parking lot into the offices of a bakery below.

The area, which includes a major street beside the damaged building, remained closed early Friday.

WorkSafeBC, the agency that oversees worker safety in the province, says it has already opened an investigation into the cause of the collapse.

—The Canadian Press