By Taylor Chartrand

Partial roof-collapse at LimeLitez Dance Academy

Feb 23, 2019 | 5:03 PM

Medicine Hat, AB – It has been a busy and stressful couple days for the owner of LimeLitez Dance Academy, Jerredi Hauck.

“On Wednesday afternoon, we noticed the ceiling tiles were hanging low in the back studio and some of the ceiling was a little bit broken,” explained Hauck. “So, we had our contractor come in to take a look and they realized there was one truss broken.”

Following the contractors investigation, Hauck said she contacted an insurance company and had everything lined up to be fixed for Thursday morning.

“We had a bunch of guys come in to take a look at it and at that point, there were three trusses broken. They went to get supplies to try and brace the ceiling, so nothing else was going to happen and about an hour later, the ceiling came down.”

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Hauck said there was nobody in the back studio during the collapse. It was just Hauck and her mother working in the front of the building.

“There was a really large sound. It sounded like the HVAC system was coming down and then we just realized that it was probably the whole ceiling. I haven’t got a clear answer from the engineer, but I think it has something to do with the snow and ice buildup on the roof.”

Hauck was extremely thankful there were no classes scheduled for this week.

“We’re really lucky the collapse happened during a week that we don’t actually have any dance classes. There was nobody hurt in the building, no children were actually in the facility at the time of the collapse, which is very lucky and we’re very thankful.”

Hauck said they have four-studios within LimeLitez, each of them amounts to roughly 1,200 square feet.

“The damage is contained to just one of those four studios because we have walls that are supporting the rest of the roof. So, it’s just the one back corner that’s actually fully damaged.”

Hauck said she does not actually own the building. The property-owners are currently out of the country and have contacted Amron Homes to complete the short-term repairs.

Once the repairs are complete, an engineer will have to complete an inspection before anyone is allowed back in the building.

“We’re just hoping for the best and as soon as the work gets done, we’ll be back in there.”

Hauck said she hopes they can section off that part of the building and use the rest of the facility in the near future. 

In the meantime, Hauck is now re-scheduling her roughly 250 dancers for the upcoming week.

“We’ve got all of our dancers moved throughout different locations in the city for the next week. That’s all been finalized and we’ll just be taking it week-by-week to find the best possible situation.” 

She then stated that these next couple days will be very hectic.

“I’ve been extremely busy sending e-mails to clients. They should expect to hear from me in the next couple days regarding scheduling next week and moving into our new spaces. We’re working to sort everything out and hoping to keep our schedules as close to normal as we can.”

Hauck wanted to reassure her clientele that she is working very diligently to get this issue resolved.

“Hopefully, we can keep running and get back into our business as fast as we can.”