Roof collapses at barns and small businesses around Connecticut have raised memories of the biggest collapse of all - when the gigantic roof of the Hartford Civic Center came crashing down on January 18, 1978.
Not only is the re-built roof much stronger than the original, but workers were taking no chances as they cleared the snow off the coliseum roof Tuesday at the newly named XL Center in downtown Hartford.
"I can see them right now from my office window,'' Matthew J. Hennessy, the former chief of staff to Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez, said Tuesday. "They've been up there all day. They're definitely shoveling - no snowblower.''
Through a major stroke of luck, no one was injured in the 1978 collapse at 4:19 a.m. But it happened only six hours after a college basketball game that attracted about 5,000 spectators. In addition, the roof came down about 15 hours before a high school game was scheduled to begin.
The collapse caused Hartford Whalers fans to head north along Interstate 91 to Springfield until the roof was replaced.