"Six people were buried under the debris..."

The danger in the maintenance and rehabilitation of existing structures can be great. Here is a recent story emphasizing what could go horribly wrong.

Two workers died while three sustained injuries after the factory where they were working collapsed in India one of the mornings the first week of April 2019, the police said.

They said the deceased have been identified. They were working on the ground floor of the double story aluminum factory along with two injured workers.

The incident happened at around 11 a.m. when a part of the roof on the first floor collapsed, the locals said.

“A lot of construction work happens here. The workers were probably doing some repair work when the incident happened,” said a nearby factory manager, just opposite the spot. Soon after the roof collapse, the nearby factory manager and about 15 others rushed to the spot to help the injured. Recalling the rescue process, he said the local police reached on time. However, teams of fire department and local Department of Disaster Management Authority turned up after the locals and the police rescued the victims, he said.

“It took us about two hours to pull the five persons from under the debris. There were iron rods and iron slabs in the debris, which were extremely heavy. After rescuing two persons, we realised another person was trapped,” the nearby factory owner said. The third victim told us that there were two more persons trapped inside, he added.

“We saw one person who had an iron rod stuck inside and was also under the slab. As there was no other equipment to rescue him, we brought hydraulic, which is used to lift cars. We could only lift the slab a little. He was, however, dead by then,” the nearby factory owner said. All five were rushed to a nearby hospital where two of the workers were declared dead. The injured are undergoing treatment and are said to be out of danger, the police said.

“A case under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code is being registered and necessary legal action will be taken,” said a senior police officer.

The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog offers our sincere condolences to the deceased workers’ families in this incident. Apparently, they were repairing a wall and the ceiling (floor of the 2^nd story) collapsed upon them without warning.

“Construction work was underway for the last three-four months around the old wall. Our employer was putting up a pillar for a new wall. Lintel — a horizontal support — had been set up to keep the structure in place. On Thursday morning, some stones fell on the lintel, following which the temporary wall collapsed,” police told in statement.

The local mayor said the building was being repaired.

“They were repairing it… one stone fell and the wall collapsed as it was still under construction. Precautions should have been taken by the people in charge. There is no MCD violation as the construction was being done by an individual and he did not take the right precautions,” he said.

The APSB has posted incidents involving walls or ceilings collapsing upon workers. We are at a loss of words on what to say regarding this incident. We pray that the reader in the future will ask “What if?” or “Could this?” in regards to the impossible happening when maintenance or rehab work is being performed at your plant. Because, we know from history that there is no “impossible”.