Woman Killed In Weymouth Roof Collapse

WEYMOUTH (CBS) --- Friends and family can't begin to calculate the odds of a carport roof collapsing like a pancake while 29-year-old Jenna Flaherty stood beneath it. The Weymouth resident and mother of a ten-year-old boy died as a result of her injuries.

"There's no one in the world I've laughed with more than Jenna," said James Coulle who describes himself as like a stepfather to the young woman.

The victim was in the wrong place at the wrong time at the house on Harlem Road and apparently trying to alert her grandfather to a problem.

"This is the tragic result of a woman standing outside on the phone telling him something was making noise outside," said Jeffrey Richards, Weymouth building inspector.

The noise, he says, was the carport pulling away from the home with ice buildup in the joint, sending the roof with more than 200 pounds of snow and ice raining down.

"I heard a big bang, I put on my coat and walked down and saw it," said neighbor Rose Lanahan. "I saw them take the girl out." Another neighbor said she wasn't trapped beneath, but was hit directly on the head and was unconscious when she was rushed to the ambulance.

Friends say Jenna Flaherty was living here with her grandfather and his disabled friend who owned the home.

"She'd do laundry, help out around the house. She was getting her stuff together. I'm proud of her," said Coulle.

Weymouth Mayor Susan Kay says the tragic case has officials looking at other buildings in the town, especially ones with flat roofs. "It's not going to stop snowing. We have a whole month of it, and there are concerns there," she said.

Flaherty's lifelong friend James Coulle says he'll miss her smile. "I can't understand it. How freaky can that get to be outside and the roof collapses."

MORE LOCAL NEWS FROM CBS BOSTON