Ketchikan’s Tatsuda’s IGA Supermarket closed down unexpectedly after a landslide took out much of the business early Thursday morning, according to reports coming out of that southeast city.

The Ketchikan Fire Department received a fire alarm from the business at 633 Stedman at 12:56 am resulting in a response. Upon arrival, KFD found that a portion of the rocky bluff behind the building had broke away from the hillside, creating a landslide that crashed into the establishment causing significant damage inside and outside the building. The landslide had deposited rock, mud, rubble and trees into the interior of the building and took out key support beams. The impact blew out windows and shifted shelves inside the store.

The slide also damaged and set off the sprinkler system in the structure. Responding firefighters were able to quickly turn off utilities to the building to limit the damage. The business was closed and no employees were present at the time of the incident. The fire department is not allowing access to the building at this time.

The business put out a message on their Facebook page, saying, “A huge rock slide came down in the middle of the night and destroyed much of our building. Needless to say, we will be closed, indefinitely…”

  Alaska, business, closed, damage, debis, fire department, indefinitely, ketchikan, landslide, rockslide, southeast, supermarket, tatsudas