The Roanoke Times reported that there were four people inside Blacksburg High School when its roof collapsed.
According to security camera footage obtained by the Roanoke Times through a Freedom of Information Act request, Todd Poff, an engineer for Blacksburg firm OWPR; Steve Brumfield, assistant to the director for operations in the school system’s facilities department; and two other individuals were inside BHS’s cafeteria area when the roof of the gym area collapsed.
The two unidentified individuals were probably the head custodian of BHS and the school system’s energy manager, according to the report.
“It’s not really an important story,” said Walt Shannon, interim superintendent of Montgomery County Schools.
“We never denied people had not been in the building,” Shannon said. “They were looking at the structure and fled (when the roof collapsed).”
Shannon said the most important thing was that there were no injuries and nobody was caught under the roof. He added that the footage, taken by motion-activated security cameras, only shows “individuals moving down the hallway.”
The cameras turned off when the building lost power at the collapse, Shannon said.
A version of this article appeared in the Feb 25 issue of the Collegiate Times.
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