Collapsing building kills one person, injures 12 (December 8, 2012) Front page

One person was crushed to death at Cantonments in Accra when a four-storey building he was working on with others collapsed late Saturday night.

The deceased, whose name was only given as Alex, was said to be a married man with a child. 

The body of the deceased has been deposited at the Police Hospital.  

Twelve others rescued from the rubble were sent to the Police and the 37 Military hospitals, where nine of them were treated and discharged.

The remaining three, who are still on admission at the Police Hospital, are not in danger. 

The incident reportedly occurred around 11 p.m. last Saturday when the building, located near the American Embassy in the plush Cantonments suburb, buckled while close to 20 construction workers were working on it. 

What happened? 

Almost all the construction workers were tight-lipped on what happened, but one of them told the Daily Graphic that they had almost finished casting the concrete for the night when the incident happened.

“We didn’t see a crack anywhere. All we heard was an explosion and then the building came down. Alex was down the building and he got trapped and died when the concrete fell on him,” he said.

“It was one of the scariest moments of my life. I don’t know how I survived it without any injury,” he said. 

At the time the Daily Graphic visited the accident site, carpenters were busily barricading the place, under the supervision of two policemen and a team from the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO).

Iron rods and heavy concrete slabs hung loosely and dangerously in the pile of rubble.  

A section of the collapsed building, about two floors, is still standing. 

The police account 

Briefing the Daily Graphic, the Cantonments District Police Commander, Chief Superintendent Iddi Seidu, said around 11 p.m last Saturday the Cantonments Police had a call from a source near the Akai House and the American Embassy that a building under construction had collapsed while workers were working on it.

He said the police, under the command of the Crime Officer, DSP Kingsley Aboagye, rushed to the scene.

“When they got there, scores of employees were injured and the first thing was to evacuate them to the Police Hospital. 

“An ambulance provided by the National Ambulance Service took six of the injured to the 37 Military Hospital, while two volunteers used their pick-ups to send six others to the Police Hospital.

“Later on, the police team asked the workers to organise a roll call. It was while they were doing that that they realised that one of them, a carpenter, could not be accounted for. Calls made to his phone could not go through,” he said. 

Chief Supt Seidu said NADMO and the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) were called in but they could not readily get the equipment needed to look for the missing person.

He, however, said after daybreak, the rescue team was able to locate Alex, who had then passed on.

“Unfortunately, we lost him. We did not get him alive. He was buried under the heavy concrete slaps. His body has been deposited at the Police Hospital morgue,” he said.

He said for now, the rescue mission had been stepped down because they no longer expected anybody to be buried under the rubble. 

Chief Supt  Seidu, however, said the contractor, one Alhaji Nuhu, had reported himself to the police as investigations continued into what had caused the collapse of the building. 

One person was crushed to death at Cantonments in Accra when a four-storey building he was working on with others collapsed late Saturday night.

The deceased, whose name was only given as Alex, was said to be a married man with a child.
The body of the deceased has been deposited at the Police Hospital.
Twelve others rescued from the rubble were sent to the Police and the 37 Military hospitals, where nine of them were treated and discharged.
The remaining three, who are still on admission at the Police Hospital, are not in danger.
The incident reportedly occurred around 11 p.m. last Saturday when the building, located near the American Embassy in the plush Cantonments suburb, buckled while close to 20 construction workers were working on it.

What happened? 

Almost all the construction workers were tight-lipped on what happened, but one of them told the Daily Graphic that they had almost finished casting the concrete for the night when the incident happened.
“We didn’t see a crack anywhere. All we heard was an explosion and then the building came down. Alex was down the building and he got trapped and died when the concrete fell on him,” he said.
“It was one of the scariest moments of my life. I don’t know how I survived it without any injury,” he said.
At the time the Daily Graphic visited the accident site, carpenters were busily barricading the place, under the supervision of two policemen and a team from the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO).
Iron rods and heavy concrete slabs hung loosely and dangerously in the pile of rubble.
A section of the collapsed building, about two floors, is still standing.

The police account 

Briefing the Daily Graphic, the Cantonments District Police Commander, Chief Superintendent Iddi Seidu, said around 11 p.m last Saturday the Cantonments Police had a call from a source near the Akai House and the American Embassy that a building under construction had collapsed while workers were working on it.
He said the police, under the command of the Crime Officer, DSP Kingsley Aboagye, rushed to the scene.
“When they got there, scores of employees were injured and the first thing was to evacuate them to the Police Hospital.
“An ambulance provided by the National Ambulance Service took six of the injured to the 37 Military Hospital, while two volunteers used their pick-ups to send six others to the Police Hospital.
“Later on, the police team asked the workers to organise a roll call. It was while they were doing that that they realised that one of them, a carpenter, could not be accounted for. Calls made to his phone could not go through,” he said.
Chief Supt Seidu said NADMO and the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) were called in but they could not readily get the equipment needed to look for the missing person.
He, however, said after daybreak, the rescue team was able to locate Alex, who had then passed on.
“Unfortunately, we lost him. We did not get him alive. He was buried under the heavy concrete slaps. His body has been deposited at the Police Hospital morgue,” he said.
He said for now, the rescue mission had been stepped down because they no longer expected anybody to be buried under the rubble.
Chief Supt  Seidu, however, said the contractor, one Alhaji Nuhu, had reported himself to the police as investigations continued into what had caused the collapse of the building. 

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