1 Killed in Warehouse Roof Collapse : Tragedy: Workers were demolishing building in Torrance. Five are injured, including one who is in critical condition.

One worker was killed and five others were injured in Torrance on Sunday when the roof of a former retail store they were demolishing collapsed, sending them plummeting about 25 feet to a cement floor.

The accident occurred shortly after noon at the former National Lumber & Supply store on Crenshaw Boulevard near Pacific Coast Highway, Torrance Fire Department officials said.

Fire Capt. Rick Bongard said demolition work on the closed 40,000-square-foot store had been going on for about five days. A 30-by-30-foot section of plywood roof buckled as it was being removed, he said.

Fire officials theorized that the workers were taking apart some supporting boards when the roof section collapsed.

“The workers looked like they rode down with the roof as it collapsed,” said Bongard, who was on the scene a few minutes later.

The dead man’s name was withheld by the Los Angeles County coroner’s office until relatives could be notified. A coroner’s spokesperson said the victim may have been the brother of one of the injured workers.

Three workers were taken to Torrance Memorial Medical Center. They were Rigoberto Sierra, 41, in critical condition; Roman Aguilar, 36, in stable condition, and Petronello Santana, 23, who was treated and released.

Lazaro Santana, 25, and Adegundo Arzate, 30, were treated at Little Company of Mary Hospital in Torrance and released.

National Lumber & Supply Inc., a home-improvement company and one of California’s oldest retail chains, filed for bankruptcy protection in April, 1990, saying it was hurt by a slumping housing market and that it could no longer compete against volume warehouse home-improvement chains.

It completed the sale of its Southern California stores last September.