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Al-Ahram Weekly 24 - 30 June 1999 Issue No. 435 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 24 - 30 June 1999 Issue No. 435
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Features Interview Travel Sports Time Out Chronicles People Cartoons Letters When greed costs lives
By Jailan Halawi
An engineer, a contractor and five workers were among ten people killed under the wreckage of a plastic factory storehouse that collapsed on Saturday in the industrial Sixth of October City. Sixteen others were injured. The disaster occurred while 24 workers were laying the concrete foundation of the building that covers an 800-square-metre area. They heard sounds of cracking that were followed by the collapse.
Three hours later, the bodies of construction engineer Youssef Ya'qoub, contractor Anwar Michael and a worker were pulled out of the wreckage by rescue workers who had rushed to the scene.
The rescue workers managed to pluck 16 people from under the debris and rushed them to hospital. Most of them were listed in stable condition. Two workers were in critical condition, hospital officials said.
Six bodies were recovered immediately and another four were found after a three-day search.
Rescue workers were trying to cut away two ceilings of concrete and steel that had fallen on the workers.
A preliminary inspection of the debris blamed the collapse on the use of sub-standard concrete in building columns that could not support the ceiling.
The governor of Giza, Maher El-Guindi, visited the site of the tragedy and asked Arab Contractors, a construction firm, and the armed forces for assistance in the rescue operation.
Atef Abu Hadeq, 23, one of the injured workers, had to remain under the rubble for nearly 14 hours before the rescue team managed to free his body. Abu Hadeq's brother died in the disaster. The two had joined work at the factory five days before the collapse.
"We are all day-labourers who earn our income day by day. Our families in Upper Egypt wait for our return because we are their bread-winners. We used to starve if we could not find work for a couple of days but, now that we are injured, who is going to support our families?" said Rashad Othman.
The government said a committee would investigate the reasons for the disaster and offered compensation of LE5,000 to each of the families of those killed, as well as LE1,000 to each of those injured.
The incident was the latest in a number of recent building collapses. In January, 12 people died when a five-storey apartment block in the Cairo district of Giza caved in.
One of the worst incidents was in October 1996, when an 11-storey apartment block cracked, killing 64 people, in an accident blamed by officials on the illegal building of additional storeys.
Soaring Cairo real estate prices have often pushed landlords to build extra floors without permission from the authorities.
