STOREY BUILDING COLLAPSES (1B, JUNE 5, 2010)

A FOUR-STOREY building situated along the Spintex Road, near Tema, collapsed yesterday stirring conflicting reports on the number of casualties.
While some eyewitnesses feared as many as six persons, including a four-year-old boy, could have been buried under the debris of officials of the Natioanal Fire Service said only two masons, Isaac Nartey and Derick Oppong sustained injuries and are currently receiving treatment at the Sakumono Hospital
The Deputy Public Relations Officer of the Ghana National Fire Service, Mr Prince Anaglate, said the two told their rescuers that they were in the building when the building collapsed .
Mr Anaglate commented on the quality of materials used in constructing the building, noting that the concrete had little cement in it and called for experts to be involved in projects of this nature .
On the wreckage, Mr Anaglate conceded that only 15 per cent of the rescue work had been done but disclosed that since the victims were out the search exercise would be abandoned .
An eyewitness however said the calamity occurred when labourers were preparing to commence work on the multi-purpose shop attached to the Fish Up Filling Station and feared there were more people in there. The property belonged to one George Kwame-Gyan.
When the Daily Graphic arrived at the scene yesterday afternoon, personnel of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), the police and a large number of volunteers were making frantic efforts to rescue those who were believed to have been buried under the debris.
The eyewitness, Richard Apenu, who narrowly escaped the accident, told the Daily Graphic that he had information yesterday morning that some labourers were being recruited to work on the building and went to join about seven others in search of work as casual labourers.
He said after waiting for some time, word came that the one responsible for the registration would delay in coming to the site, due to the early rains, adding that because he (the eyewitness) lived in the neighbourhood, he decided to go home and come back later.
According to Richard, no sooner had he arrived home than he heard a loud bang, followed by information that the “building we were expected to work on that morning had collapsed”.
He said he went back to the spot and in the company of passers-by and attempted to rescue the victims but that did not yield any result.
According to Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Marian Osei-Adu, who is in charge of the Sakumono District, her outfit received a distress call about 9 a.m. yesterday that a building under construction had collapsed on six people.
She said she quickly rushed her men to the spot, in the company of the owner of the place, Mr George Kwame-Gyan, who arranged for some machines to rescue those who might have been buried under the debris.
She said the GNFS and NADMO were informed and they swiftly responded to the call.
She expressed the hope that bigger excavators would be brought in to do the work because what was on site could hardly cope.
ASP Osei-Adu refuted the allegation that some bodies had been retrieved and sent to the hospital, adding, “The police did not meet any retrieved body because we organised for the excavators.”
Mr Prince Anaglate, said because of the difficulty in digging into the debris, firemen were using extricating machines to cut the iron rods in the collapsed structures to enable the excavators to lift the slabs of the building.
He said the uncompleted storey building had been roofed and had cement blocks packed on the second floor to enable the workers to have easy access to them while they worked.