LEWISTON – A partial roof collapse at the Wal-Mart Distribution Center on Tuesday night sent a handful of workers home while firefighters were still assessing the damage hours later.

Nobody was hurt when a section of roof caved in about 8:30 p.m. but emergency crews and Wal-Mart representatives scrambled to the Alfred Plourde Parkway complex.

Firefighters examining the roof from ladders reported seeing what appeared to be a 50- by 40-foot section of damage to a warehouse roof beneath 3 feet of snow. Roofs on other buildings at the complex were covered by between a foot and 4 feet of snow, they said.

By 10 p.m., firefighters remained on the ladders while others inspected the interior portion of the damaged area. They were joined by police, engineers and Wal-Mart representatives.

Early indications were that the portion of the roof that collapsed was on top of refrigeration equipment, with nobody beneath it.

The sheer size of the sprawling complex, at nearly 1 million square feet, made assessing the damage a slow process. Firefighters on the ladder radioed back to the others as they scanned one section of the building after another.

The building was completed in 2006 at a cost of approximately $60 million and employs hundreds of workers.

Police said Wal-Mart officials sent the night shift workers home while engineers were inspecting the building. It was unknown if the facility would be fully operational Wednesday.

A Wal-Mart employee who had been working in the meat packing section of the building said they heard the rumbling and fled the area just before the ceiling caved in. She describe the collapsed section as “the size of a house.”