Fife warehouse evacuated after forklift smashes into roof support beam Thursday

Dozens of Tricon Logistics employees were evacuated from their Fife warehouse after a forklift crashed into one of the building’s support beams.

The incident happened late Thursday morning near the intersection of 70th Avenue East and 26th Street East when a forklift drove into one of the warehouse’s main supports. Tacoma Fire Department battalion chief Todd Magliocca told The News Tribune that the crash did significant damage to the building; as a consequence, part of the roof began to sag.

Firefighters arrived at the scene shortly afterwards and began evacuating the building. Around 11:30 a.m., Magliocca said the evacuation was about 90% complete, and no one has been hurt. As the building was being evacuated, firefighters were beginning a structural assessment of the building integrity.

Although about 24 firefighters showed up, Magliocca said that the situation had turned into a non-emergency and he would start to scale back the number of first responders. By noon, employees had returned to parts of the warehouse not affected by the crash.

According to its Google company description, Tricon specializes in facilitating industrial supply chains. Its website indicates that it is part of a larger company called Maersk, a company with locations across the globe.

This story was originally published August 11, 2022 at 12:51 PM.