School block collapses, kills 2 at Dzorwulu

A school block under construction at the Dzorwulu Primary School in the Ayawaso West municipality in Accra has collapsed, reportedly killing two construction workers and injuring six others.

Last Saturday’s accident left a heap of debris which engaged workers for the greater part of yesterday, as they tried to tidy the environment for school activities today.

When the Daily Graphic visited the scene on Sunday, September 29, workers were busily clearing the debris, ostensibly to make the place accessible to pupils and teachers today.

Silence

The workers were, however, tight-lipped and refused to give out any information.

“I do not know what happened. We were just brought here to level the place and clear the debris,” one said.

The Daily Graphic team also got the silent treatment from people around the school, who said they could not talk about what happened, for some unknown reasons.

The team had to move further away from the school to find people who were ready to talk about the incident.

One eyewitness said the classroom block collapsed around 1 p.m. last Saturday and that most of the workers had to be pulled from the rubble.

“I rushed to the place and what I saw was not that pleasant. Two of the people who were pulled from the debris were dead, one with a crushed head,” he said.

NADMO

A Senior Officer of the Urban Search Rescue Team at the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Mr Yaw Kiatchery, told Accra-based Citi FM last Saturday that the entire structure would be pulled down because it was a death trap.

“It will become a death trap to any person who will pass around the place and so there is the need to pull down the structure, and that is why we have taken a decision, with the help of the police and the municipal chief executive, to pull down the structure, and that is what we are doing,” he said.

Collapse of buildings

A number of people have lost their lives as a result of collapsed buildings, possibly caused by faulty construction.

In November 2012, nine people died, while about 70 got injured, when the Achimota branch of Melcom collapsed.

At that time, officials said the building did not have the necessary building permits and had not undergone any safety inspection.