Company: Tent that collapsed in St. Louis wasn`t intended as storm shelter

May 01--ST. LOUIS -- The owner of the company that installed the tent that was swept away by a storm Saturday at Kilroy's Sports Bar said Tuesday that his company had properly installed a safe tent.

"Those things are not designed to be storm shelters," said Kevin Broz, owner of Sun Rental Inc. of Bridgeton.

About 100 people were injured, one fatally, when the tent next to the bar at 720 South Seventh Street collapsed during a ferocious windstorm Saturday afternoon.

Owner Art Randall said Monday he was standing next to his bar's large dance-hall tent, serving beer, when the storm hit.

"You would have thought a bomb went off," Randall said.

Then, as Randall watched, every single rope staking down the large tent snapped.

"That tent went 40 feet in the air and landed on top of the railroad tracks," Randall said. "And in that five seconds, I had 50 people on the ground."

Randall questioned whether the tent was as sturdy as it should have been.

"I'm very regretful that, you know, that the tent either wasn't strong enough -- I know nothing about that ...," he said, his voice trailing off.

Randall said that Sun Rental was established and respected. And the city inspected the tent at least twice, and gave the bar its permit.

"It appeared to be installed properly," he said. "They drove stakes into the ground with heavy equipment."

The city of St. Louis requires that any large public tent be able to withstand 90 mph winds, but inspectors do not test tents for strength in bad weather, a St. Louis official confirmed Monday.

Broz said his company is cooperating with city officials who are examining the incident.

Bar customer Alfred Goodman, 58, of Waterloo, died of "blunt trauma" to his head and neck caused by the storm, the city medical examiner's office reported. Goodman was among 17 people who were taken by ambulance to St. Louis University or Barnes-Jewish hospitals, with the rest of the injured treated at the scene. Goodman was pronounced dead at SLU Hospital.

Public Safety Director Eddie Roth said the city required permits and inspections for tents that cover more than 1,000 square feet and are open to the public. City regulations require tents to withstand wind gusts of 90 mph, which Roth described as an industry standard.

But he said inspectors checked primarily for sufficient exits and other requirements to reduce fire hazards.

He said inspectors "do not have the capacity to physically test or confirm" whether a tent can meet the wind requirement. "These structures are temporary and are not designed to be shelter in severe weather," Roth said.

Kilroy's obtained a permit for its tent on April 11. City building commissioner Frank Oswald said the city had issued 236 such permits since Jan. 1, 2010, about half of them for events of only a few days' duration.

Tent permits are good for 180 days, or roughly a regular baseball season.

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