State Fair Arena in Oklahoma City is deemed safe after ceiling damage

A team of engineers is investigating what caused a 12-inch-by-4-inch piece of ceiling to fall inside the arena Tuesday, just days before thousands of people and horses started to arrive in town for the Ford American Quarter Horse Youth Association World Championship Show. Engineers said the building is structurally sound. The incident should not cause problems during the show, which started Friday and continues through Aug. 7.

Tim O'Toole, president and general manager of Oklahoma State Fair Inc., said guests would not be allowed in the arena if officials had any doubts about the building's structural soundness.

"Safety is obviously our number one concern," O'Toole said. "Always has been, always will be."

About 12 people were working on the arena floor Tuesday afternoon when a piece of ceiling fell above some upper seating. Fair officials immediately contacted Zahl-Ford, Inc., a structural engineering firm that specializes in investigative projects. The firm conducted a structural analysis of the arena in 2008 to determine weight limits for the ceiling.

Steve Ford, executive vice president of the company, said several wires broke that were part of a high-strength cable that ran along the roof. Sixty-eight cables run in the roof of the arena, Ford said. Within several hours, Ford's team determined the problem posed no immediate safety threat. Workers, who were asked to leave the building as a precautionary measure after the piece fell, were allowed to return to work that afternoon.

The seating area where the ceiling piece fell has been roped off as a precautionary measure. Ford said some additional debris could fall.

State Fair Arena was built in the 1960s. The arena, which seats close to 9,000 people, has had more than $9 million worth of renovations since 2007, including a new scoreboard, repairs to columns on the building's exterior, a lighting upgrade and a new exterior coating. None of the renovations took place in the affected area, and they could not have caused damage to the ceiling, Ford said.

In May, the city council awarded a $260,000 contract to Restek Inc. for structural repairs at State Fair Arena.

The money was part of a payment for work Restek did to improve the building exterior in 2008-09.

More than 850 contestants and 1,200 horses from throughout the world are participating in the Ford American Quarter Horse Youth Association World Championship Show.

Tom Persechino, executive director of competition for the American Quarter Horse Association, said he is not concerned about a piece of the ceiling falling.

He was notified about the incident soon after it happened Tuesday.

"It was just an isolated incident," Persechino said. "I think probably the weather is a bigger factor than what occurred here."

Many guests who watched from the lower level of the arena Friday were not aware of what happened to the ceiling.

Shannon Rohring, 13, of San Diego, said news about the ceiling could cause some concern among guests because horses can be frightened easily if strange events happen. Rohring said she wasn't too concerned, though.

"If people came to check it out, I'm sure it's safe," Rohring said.

Engineers will continue to assess the situation and determine how to fix the problem, said Scott Munz, vice president of marketing and public relations for Oklahoma State Fair Inc.

"It's sort of like the layers of an onion," Munz said. "We're peeling it back to get to the root of the problem. We don't know what that will entail."