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 A portion of the building which collapsed last Saturday at the North Industrial Area in Accra
A portion of the building which collapsed last Saturday at the North Industrial Area in Accra

Falling building crushes one to death

One person was crushed to death at the North Industrial Area in Accra when a two-storey building on which he was working with others collapsed late Saturday afternoon.

The building was under construction.

The victim, whose name was only given as Wisdom, was said to be a senior high school graduate who was working with other labourers.

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

Three others rescued from the rubble were sent to the Kaneshie Polyclinic and the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, where they were treated and discharged.

The incident reportedly occurred around 2:30 p.m. last Saturday when the building, located near the Old Melcom in the Industrial Area, collapsed while close to 15 construction workers were working on it.
Labourers

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 afternoon when the incident happened.

“We didn’t see a crack anywhere; all we heard was an explosion and then the building came down. Wisdom 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 added.

When the Daily Graphic visited the accident site, carpenters were busily barricading the place, under the supervision of the police, a team from the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) and the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA).

Iron rods and heavy concrete slabs hung loosely and dangerously in the pile of rubble. 
AMA’s account

Briefing the Daily Graphic, the Presiding Member of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), Mr Alfred Adjei, said around 2:30 p.m. last Saturday the AMA had a call that a building under construction had collapsed while workers were working on it.

He said when the AMA team got to the area, scores of employees were injured and the first thing was to evacuate them to the Kaneshie Polyclinic.

He said the injured who were sent to the Kaneshie Polyclinic were later referred to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital for treatment.
Police confirmation

The Kaneshie District Police Commander, Superintendent Ernest Acheampong, who confirmed the death, said the body of the deceased had been sent to the Police Hospital morgue, while the three others who sustained various forms of injury had been treated and discharged.

Superintendent Acheampong said investigations were still ongoing to ascertain what led to the collapse of the building.

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