CACHE COUNTY, Utah (ABC4) — The roof of an addiction treatment facility in Cache County collapsed for a second time within a month, leading city officials to close the building and deemed it condemned.

Employees at Rising Ridge Recovery, a rehab center located just outside of Wellsville, evacuated the facility after noticing strange sounds coming from the ceiling of their main building on Thursday. At around 3 p.m., the roof collapsed under the heavy weight of snow.

Around 40 employees will lose their jobs with the center closing, and all of their clients are currently being discharged to other facilities. Co-owner Shane Branz says city officials have now deemed the building a condemned property, and he has no idea what will come next for the rehab center.

“It’s devastating,” Branz said. “We have worked so hard at a business that does so much good.”

The Wellsville Fire Chief says it’ll be a while before someone will be allowed to step foot into the building. Without a building to operate from, the treatment facility faces an uncertain future.

“Before, it was one of those situations where we could still operate, we could still keep going,” Branz said. “This [second collapse] is in the heart of our building where everything occurs, so without the ability to replace this and rebuild it, it’s just an expense that we don’t have the funds to do.” 

This is the second time in about a month that dozens of the residents at the rehab center were displaced. Cache County deputies were called to Rising Ridge on March 9 after the roof over their pool collapsed due to significant snowfall accumulation, and people could smell gas.

All employees and residents were quickly evacuated. About 22 people had to be transported to a nearby hotel while building inspectors examine the structure.

“My heart just sank,” Branz said when he heard about the first collapse. “It’s been challenging to fight this fight, but we know we’re doing a good thing and we want to keep going.”

No injuries were reported. The rest of the building was deemed safe following an inspection, and the residents returned to the center two days later.

“It’s a steel beam structure that gave way,” Branz explained. “It probably would have been the last building on the property that we would have been concerned about.”

The roof collapsing is a setback of its own, but to make matters worse, insurance will not be covering the damage. 

“You couple that with being a startup — these are all resources now that we have to divert instead of focusing on helping clients find sobriety and to step into recovery,” Branz said.   

The rehab center opened its doors about a year and a half ago at the old Sherwood Hills Resort in Sardine Canyon.

ABC4 has a crew en route to the scene. This story will be updated.