Story: Sebastian Syme, Esther Somuah, Dominic Moses Awiah & Mary Ankrah
THREE employees of the Achimota Melcom Shopping Complex have been confirmed dead while 52 others got trapped in a five-storey building after it collapsed in the early hours of yesterday resulting in the destruction of items worth millions of cedis.
The incident, which occurred about 9:45 am, attracted hundreds of people in and around Achimota and other surrounding areas and brought business activities to a complete halt when people abandoned their offices and stores to witness the tragic incident.
A combined emergency rescue team from the Ghana National Fire Service, the National Ambulance Service, the Ghana Police Service, the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), the National Sanitation Taskforce, the Ghana Armed Forces and other security agencies, as well other private rescue organisations, were at hand to provide rescue operations.
According to an eyewitness who gave his name as Bright Danquah, the building collapsed when the workers were holding their routine morning devotion.
The team employed the use of excavators, forklifts and other heavy equipment to create an opening to allow for ventilation for the victims buried under the rubble.
At the time of filing this report, 45 of the victims had been rescued and rushed to various hospitals.
According to the Director of the Ghana Ambulance Service, Dr Ahmed Zakaria, 13 were rushed to the 37 Military Hospital, while four, 28, and one were conveyed to the Korle-Bu Teaching, Achimota and the Police hospitals respectively.
He told newsmen that the service mobilised all its ambulances in the Greater Accra Region to the disaster area to ensure that victims were promptly taken to hospital.
The accident resulted in a heavy vehicular and human traffic on the Achimota-Ofankor road as drivers stopped to satisfy their curiosity.
What worsened the traffic situation was the decision by the police to cordon off various sections of the area to prevent people from invading the scene to add to the crowd the police had a hectic time controlling.
The team could not immediately rescue the trapped victims as a result of difficulties in having access to the scene. However, local residents of Achimota voluntarily embarked on a rescue mission and managed to get three victims out of the debris while the security agencies had a difficult time trying to restrain the hundreds of onlookers who had gathered at the accident scene.
Some relatives of the victims who were at the scene could not hold back their tears as they wailed in hopelessness, while others busily prayed for the lives of the victims.
Some of the victims trapped in the building were heard shouting and calling relatives on phone and vice versa calling for water as they could not bear the heat underground.
Sympathisers hurled insults and expressed disgust at the apparent shoddy work executed by the contractor of the building.
One of the survivors, Isaac Histowell, 30, told the Daily Graphic that he noticed a crack in one of the main pillars of the structure last Sunday when he was fixing a broken air conditioner.
‘’I reported the incident to my station manager who assured me that they would engage the mason to rectify the situation. A day after, I chanced upon another pillar which also had a similar crack. This time, the manager told me to leave it in the hands of God and that God will never allow anything evil to befall His children,’’ Mr Histowell narrated.
He said at around 9:36 am yesterday, he climbed the outer pillar of the building to fix a different air conditioner, adding that ‘’I heard boom, then a pillar hit my head’’.
The Chairman of the Melcom Group in Ghana, Mr Khubchandani Dhagwan, described the tragedy as very unfortunate and painful to the board, the management and staff of the company.
He said the company rented the building about 10 months ago believing and thinking that it was a solid structure as it had been advertised to be rented.
But as a responsible company, Mr Khubchandani said, it would not shy away from its responsibilities towards the deceased and the injured.
“We will stand by each one of them and their families,” he assured.
A government delegation led by President John Mahama and Vice-President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur in the company of the Chief Executive of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, Dr Alfred Oko Vanderpuye, the Minister of Trade and Industry, Ms Hannah Tetteh, and other ministers of state visited the scene.
A delegation from the New Patriotic Party led by Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, the party’s running mate, and the flag bearer of the United Front Party (UFP) were also at the scene to commiserate with the victims.
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