Milder temperatures are helping cleanup efforts after this week’s storm, but they’re also causing new problems in Fredericton.

Snow that was already heavy on rooftops is becoming heavier from the melt and reports of rooftop collapses are starting to pour in.

Troy Bright lives close to Fredericton’s O’Dell Park, where the roof of a building collapsed Wednesday evening.

Bright, who is also the caretaker at the park, says he heard the collapse before actually seeing the damage and immediately called his boss.

“I said, ‘Troy, don’t go in it’ and he said, ‘there’s nothing to go in and I’m standing on top of it now,’” says Don Murray, manager of Fredericton Parks and Trees.

The building stored several pieces of equipment used to maintain city parks.

“A brand new tractor that we just received last fall,” says Murray. “It probably hasn’t been used for 20 or 30 hours.”

Staff were supposed to work in the building Thursday morning, moving equipment. Bright says he is relieved the roof collapsed when no one was inside the building.

“Luckiest man in the city right now, I’d say,” says Bright.

Fredericton business owner Iaan Black says he too is grateful no one was inside his metal shop business when the roof collapsed early Monday morning.

“It was very possible that if it happened during the day, people would have been killed,” says Black.

Calculating the damage to his shop has been difficult because no one is allowed to get too close, but some staff are already feeling significant losses.

“Well, there’s going to be a bunch of them laid off,” says Black. “I mean, the business and building are shut down right now.”

Stephanie Shanks was concerned when she noticed cracks on the walls of her home Tuesday evening, so she called a contractor and a roofer. She says she made the right call, and not a minute too soon.

“When the roofer came after he took the snow off, and came in and took a look, he said it was about ready to fall,” says Shanks.

Shanks is staying out of her home for now but the roof is still intact.

“Our contractors said there was 10 to 30,000 pounds of snow on our roof, so if we didn’t have that removed, we could have had a very different story,” says Shanks.

Officials with the Emergency Measures Organization say removing snow from rooftops is a good idea, but recommends hiring a qualified worker to do so.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Nick Moore