7-Storey building collapses: One confirmed dead
Residents of Nii Boi Town, near Abeka Lapaz in Accra, went through nightmarish experiences when a seven-storey building under construction collapsed, leaving one person dead and another seriously injured.
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Realising the danger posed by the huge edifice, some of the residents reported the owner of the building, one S.K. Omari, to the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), but the AMA’s efforts to stop work did not yield any results.
The fears and anixiety of the residents became a reality when at dawn yesterday the building came down with deafening sound.
Many of the residents, upon hearing the sound, thought there was an earthquake, while others thought the world was coming to an end.
Some ran out of their homes, only to be met by a haze of dust which had engulfed the area.
Tenants in the neighbourhood who rushed to the scene heard cries for help from one of the workers on the building who had been trapped.
While some made calls to the Ghana Police Service, the National Fire Service and the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), others constituted themselves into rescue teams to find survivors in the rubble.
Experiences of residents
Narrating the incident to the Daily Graphic, an eyewitness, Kwame Tawiah, 28, who lives opposite the hotel, said he had heard a loud noise around 4:30 a.m. only to discover that the hotel had caved in when he stepped out to ascertain what had caused that loud sound.
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“When I heard the sound, I rushed outside to see if i could help but it was beyond me,” he said.
Another neigbour who gave his name only as Bala said he shared a wall with the building but what he heard were shouts and wailings by other tenants for help.
“When I heard the noise I opened my window, only to find out that the building l had seen the night before had collapsed,” Philip Arthur, an eyewitness said.
With the help of neighbours, personnel of the Ghana Police Service, the Ghana Fire Service, NADMO, the Red Cross Society and the AMA rescued one injured person and found one other dead.
The identities of the deceased and the injured were not yet known, but they are believed to be labourers working with the contractor on the building.
What caused the collapse of the building, which is said to be an annex of the Grand View Hotel which is right behind it, was not yet known.
The wall of a house near the collapsed building was also damaged.
The rescue
Hundreds of residents thronged the area to look at the collapsed building.
Initially, it was suspected that four people had been trapped in the building, but at the time of filing this report only one person had been reported dead and another injured.
A member of the rescue team also collapsed and was rushed to hospital.
Apparently surprised at the incident, the Inspector General of Police, Mr Mohammed Ahmed Alhassan; the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Mr Julius Debrah; the MP for Okaikoi North, Mrs Elizabeth Sackey, and the Chief Executive of the AMA, Dr Alfred Okoe Vanderpuiye, rushed to the scene to assess the situation.
No permit
The owner of the building was nowhere to be found and calls made to his phones by security personnel drew a blank.
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According to reports, there had been several warnings by the AMA to the owner to stop work but he did not pay heed to the warnings.
Mr Kwabena Afrane, the Assembly Member for the Anorhuma Electoral Area, where the incident occurred, told the media that developers operated without permits and he (Mr Afrane) had received a number of complaints from residents on how sometimes access roads were blocked with sand.
Collaborating the assertion by the assembly member, the Chief Executive of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, Mr Alfred Vanderpuye, indicated that all the buildings located within the Nii Boi Town, including the collapsed building do not have permit.
He said the owner of the collapsed building, Mr Omari, who is also owns the Grandview Hotel Annex, had been served with three notices to stop development but refused.
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Mr Vanderpuye said notices to stop the construction of the 8-stoery building were served on March 12, 2013, December 7, 2013 and February 26, 2014.
“The owner however was very recalcitrant and did not heed these notices” he added.
According to him, government acquired the 2,000 acres land at Nii Boi Town in 1970 for the development of an Olympic Sport Complex.
“The dream of the then government to construct the said Olympic Sport Complex did not materilise thereby leading to a situation where encroachments on the land started and became very rampant,” Mr Vanderpuye.
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Similar incidents
A six-storey shopping centre belonging to Melcom collapsed at Achimota in Accra on November 7, 2012.
The incident left 14 people dead, while 68 sustained various degrees of injury.
A building belonging to the Methodist Church at Sakaman, a suburb of Accra, which was still under construction also collapsed on July 19, last year, injuring one worker.
Listen to one eyewitness, John Mark Eshun narrating what happened
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More images from the incident scene
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