Video summary
The video investigates the tragic structural failure at Real Plaza Jirau in Trujillo, Peru, which occurred on February 21st of that year during peak shopping hours. The collapse involved a large section of the roof above a food court and children's play area, plummeting onto unsuspecting shoppers just nine years after the building opened. This incident was particularly alarming given the mall's history; it had previously been ordered shut in late 2023 due to known structural issues but was reopened under political pressure at the start of 2025. The disaster resulted in six deaths, including two children, and left over eighty people injured before emergency services arrived nearly half an hour after the initial collapse.
The investigation revealed a combination of design flaws and material negligence as primary causes for the catastrophe. Although the roof was designed to withstand a load resistance of at least 30 kilograms per square meter, poor drainage and insufficient slope allowed water accumulation during heavy rains, pushing the actual load on that specific day over 100 kilograms per square meter. Compounding this environmental factor were critical errors in construction: weaker A36 anchor bolts were installed instead of the specified high-strength A325 bolts required by the plans. Furthermore, these inferior bolts had begun to rust before the collapse, a defect that remained hidden because they were concealed beneath steel beams and difficult for inspectors to see without dismantling parts of the structure.
In the aftermath, significant legal and financial repercussions followed the tragedy, with criminal probes targeting local managers, national executives, city inspectors, and municipal officials who bore responsibility for safety oversights. The mall operator, Intercorp, faced substantial fines totaling millions of dollars for non-compliance with security standards and protocols regarding emergency response times. Following the incident, authorities ordered a shutdown of Real Plaza Jirau that lasted over eighteen months while similar structures across Peru were inspected to identify other potential risks. Despite these actions and leaked design documents exposing the discrepancies between planned specifications and actual construction, an official final report detailing every aspect of the cause was still pending at the time of the video's conclusion.
Read the full video transcript
I love me a bit of an outing to a
shopping mall.
Here near me, the best I can think of is
Bluewater. The whole place is designed
to keep you and more importantly your
wallet there all day. Shops, a cinema,
things for the kids to do, and
importantly for my waistline and for our
video, the food court.
This setup is hardly unique or original
to the United Kingdom. It's used all
over the world to part shoppers from
their money. And for our short
documentary today, we are focusing in on
Peru and one of its many shopping malls.
The Real Plaza Jirau. But why is this
the subject for the video? I'm guessing
you've seen the title card, so no points
for a quick guess, I'm afraid. It is
because just over a year ago, this
shopping mall was the subject to a
structural failure.
The event would unfold on the evening of
the 21st of February 2025, a peak time
for shopping, resulting in a large
section of the building's roof crashing
down on unsuspecting shoppers below.
What was even worse was that the roof
was only just 9 years old. Today we're
looking at the Real Plaza disaster. My
name is John and welcome to Plainly
Difficult. This video wouldn't have been
possible if it wasn't for my YouTube,
Ko-fi and Patreon members. If you want
to get early access to the channel's
videos, but you can from just £1 per
month. And as always, the links will be
in the pinned comment below.
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>> The Real Plaza.
So, Real Plaza is a chain of shopping
centers in Peru. And much like the
defunct Into, or the very much alive
Westfield here in the UK, the company
operates across the country of Peru
in roughly 13 cities. It is a subsidiary
of the multi
industry Intercorp. The Real Plazas
started popping up in the mid-2000s.
With the company's first site, Chiclayo,
followed up by our location for our
story today, in the city of Trujillo.
Now, I should say some of the company's
sites had been operated pre this company
starting up and had been rebranded, but
that's kind of irrelevant for our story
today. Anyway, the Real Plaza in
Trujillo
opened in 2007 and would in the
following years be extended and added
to, having two department stores, a H&M
store,
and Intercorp-owned Plaza Vea
hypermarket, and Cineplanet cinema. So,
parts of the growth of the site
a food court would be added.
We can see the increase in the mall's
sprawl from these Google Earth's images
over the years.
This was built,
the food court, I should say, in 2015.
And just a year later would be covered
with a rather unique-looking roof. As we
see here, it was a round covering.
It created an open and airy area for
fast-food outlets with a kids' play area
in the middle. Now, the roof was made up
of steel beams bolted together with a
circular center steel bolted section
with a smaller circular roof bolted on
top of that.
The beams were supported on reinforced
concrete columns, which were mounted
with anchor bolts. These were somewhat
concealed under the steel beams, meaning
they weren't really very visible for
easy inspection.
Connected to the steel beam were steel
purlins that created a web-like area in
which the roof steel deck would be
placed, which in turn had insulation and
a waterproof membrane placed on top of
all that. The roof, as installed, had a
very small slope, resulting in not the
best of water-shedding capabilities.
Now, the load of the roof was
transferred into the concrete columns,
which included the vital anchor bolts.
The roof design called for a load
resistance of at least 30 kg per square
meter.
Now, an uneducated idiot like myself
thinks a country like Peru is hot and
dry all year round. Well, it's not.
The country does experience rainfall,
not as often, especially in Trujillo, as
say here in London, but structures need
to have proper drainage for when it does
rain. This was something that reportedly
was not properly installed on the food
court's roof, which leads us on to the
next section of our video with an eerie
word counts on this script of 666
words so far.
The disaster.
It is the 21st of February 2025, and the
Real Plaza is enjoying a Friday full of
retail therapy.
This part of the year is a country's
rainy season, and it had been raining,
and February was much wetter than
previous years with an average of 58.2
mm, but wasn't out of the ordinary for
this period of the year. Just a couple
of years earlier in 2023, the average
for January was in the 60 mm range.
Regardless, as the day drew on into the
evening, and the food court's peak time
arrived, people milled around enjoying
the shopping and cuisine on offer. The
playground's area in the middle of the
court was relatively empty owing to the
time of day.
There was nothing apparent to warn
anyone of what was about to happen.
Suddenly, at 20:41,
the roof structure crashed down into the
open area below filled with shoppers.
Steel beams and the superstructure above
plummeted down. This was an area of
roughly 700 to 800 square meters,
crushing tables, seating areas, and
sadly the kids' playground.
Just looking at the stills on the CCTV
shows the carnage that was unleashed.
The building had failed along the
northeastern area of the roof, leaving
the opposite side still precariously
laying on its supports. Many managed to
flee the area with others desperately
trying to call out to any survivors
trapped under the half-collapsed
structure. Almost immediately phone
calls to the emergency services and
reports to social media were made by
witnesses of the collapse.
The disaster would only be officially
reported to emergency services by the
mall at 9:11 p.m.
Nearly half an hour after the initial
collapse.
Emergency workers arrived on site and
began searching through the fell
structure, rather tragically including
the kids areas ball pond.
Over the following days, survivors would
be found in addition to those who were
not so lucky. The death toll, which was
initially reported at three, would rise
to six. Tragically two of whom were
under the age of 18. In addition to
this, there were 81 injured, which also
included many children.
The mall would be shut down completely
to customers,
remaining shut even now some 18 months
later.
Many more similar structures throughout
the country would be inspected,
highlighting some issues requiring
temporary closure for repairs.
The disaster would cause outrage, which
would lead to multiple cases of
speculation on the cause of the
disaster.
The aftermath and cause.
On the 22nd of February 2025, a criminal
probe into the collapse would be
released aiming at finding the cause of
the six deaths. The main focus for
criminal culpability fell onto local
manager Louis Santa Maria, national
manager Masayoshi Shimizu,
as well as other site staff,
city inspectors and municipal officials.
Now, an official cause of the collapse
hasn't been released yet, but we can
look into the generally accepted cause.
Interviews of the witnesses claimed that
there was no real warning of the
collapse apart from banging noises
resembling an earthquake shortly before
the structure actually failed. So, the
design plans of the building were leaked
in 2025. These had been previously held
onto by Real and hadn't been made
public. But, their leak has allowed
various news agencies to dig into the
building's design. One issue that has
been posited in the media is of that of
the anchor bolts. A36 bolts were
installed, but the plans had actually
called for the much stronger A325 bolts.
The ones installed were classed as
standard low-carbon structural steel,
whereas the spec'd ones were high
strength heat-treated structural bolts.
Now, remember earlier on when I said
that the design had a low resistance of
around 30
kg per square meter? Well, due to the
rainfall, it was estimated that the load
on the roof on the day of the disaster
was over 100 kg per square meter. This
was due to the poor pitch of the roof
and the apparent lack of proper
drainage. Investigators found that the
weaker anchor bolts had also been
showing signs of rust, which wouldn't
have been seen when the structure was
intact due to it being difficult to
inspect.
Interestingly, the mall as a whole was
under scrutiny with its roofing
structure's issues being very well
known. When in December 2023, the mayor
of Trio at the time ordered the mall to
be shut down over structural issues,
resulting in the mall being temporarily
closed. However, the site was actually
reopened at the start of 2025 under
higher-up political pressure. Now,
Intercorp would be fined around 500,000
soles
in August 2025 for non-compliance of
protocols during the collapse of the
roof, i.e. the late calling of emergency
services.
Later on, they would be fined an amount
of 8 million soles
in January 2026, citing non-compliance
of established security standards.
That's around 1.7 million pounds or just
over 2 million dollars.
But, we are still waiting for the
official investigation report.
So, for the
watch this space and any future people,
please let us know in the comments
below.
So, that's my video on the real Plaza to
Rio roof disaster. It's going to be a
three on my scale. This is what I got
from my root cause analysis card. Do you
agree? Let me know in the comments
below. This is a Plane Talking
Productions
video is produced by me, John, in the
currently
very warm corner of South London, UK. It
is currently the start of July about the
time of recording this script, and today
it has been 20° C.
Anyway, thank you very much for
watching. All I have to say is, Mr.
Music, can you do me a favor and play me
out, please?
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