Edmonds Woman Killed When Tiles Fall At Warehouse Store

A 46-year-old Edmonds woman was killed yesterday when a pallet of ceramic floor tiles fell on her from an overhead shelf at a Home Base store.

Betty Vale was shopping yesterday morning with her husband, Jack, at the Lynnwood store on Highway 99. They were standing side by side in an aisle when the supporting wooden slats and a cross-support beneath the pallet broke under the weight of the tiles. The pallet tipped over and fell on Vale. Her husband was not injured.

Jack Vale said he and his wife were planning to remodel their house and were looking for brass knobs for the kitchen.

While at the store, they heard a cracking sound overhead from an aisle shelf about 10 to 12 feet from the floor.

"Someone yelled, `Watch out!' but it was too late. The whole pallet fell on her and not on me," Vale said. "Neither of us saw it coming."

He said he and other customers attempted to dig her out from the pile.

Vale and Lynnwood police Sgt. Don Harding said Betty Vale did not touch the shelf and apparently did not cause it to topple.

"It's under investigation, but it looks like an accident," Harding said.

Lynnwood police did not immediately know the weight of the 12-square-inch tiles but said the fallen tiles measured about 3 feet wide by 2 feet high. "We'll know the weight as soon as we weigh the tiles," Harding said.

Betty Vale, a bookkeeper and mother of a 23-year-old daughter and 18-year-old son, was treated at the scene and taken to Providence General Medical Center Colby Campus in Everett, where she died at 2:30 p.m. The Snohomish County medical examiner is scheduled to perform an autopsy tomorrow.

Jack Vale would not comment on whether he would file a lawsuit.

"I just can't say too much at this point," he said.

Home Base employees would not comment on the accident and referred calls to its corporate headquarters in Southern California, where there was no answer yesterday.

In 1991, an overloaded rack collapsed in a Lynnwood Costco store, burying an aisle 4 feet deep in flour, ketchup, cookies and crushing a shopping cart. There were no injuries.