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Al-Ahram Weekly 18 - 24 May 2000 Issue No. 482 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 18 - 24 May 2000 Issue No. 482
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Focus Features Heritage Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Tragedy at midnight
By Jailan HalawiA five-floor residential building collapsed after midnight on Saturday in the working class district of Al-Sayeda Zeinab, killing 16 people, including its owner. Rescue workers ended their search for survivors after pulling out of the rubble at dawn Monday the body of the 16th victim. Only two people were rescued from underneath the rubble.
The last victim was a 52-year-old man who died while trying to save his brother's family. He had already rescued his own wife and children but then returned to the site to search for his relatives. The man's brother, his wife and two children were killed.
District records show that following the 1992 earthquake that left almost 450 people dead, the building's owner, Youssri Mohamed Hussein, was ordered to make repairs because the building had suffered structural damage.
According to police sources, Hussein ignored the order until just a few weeks ago when he filed a request for a repair permit with the district council. Hussein and his wife were among those found under the rubble. The residents of the building's 12 apartments were told to leave temporarily after the renovation order was issued, but most remained in the building because they had nowhere else to go.
Eighteen people were inside the building when it collapsed. Twenty-five residents had left earlier when cracks appeared in the building's masonry.
Relatives and friends grieve for their loved ones
photo: Magdi Abdel-Sayed
According to one survivor, each tenant had paid a contractor LE1,000 last Friday to make the necessary repairs. Prosecutors have charged the contractor, Mohamed Mahmoud Khodeiri, and the construction engineer, Youssef Mohamed El-Sirafi, with manslaughter and violating building regulations.
Khodeiri reportedly dug holes around the building's foundations hours before it caved in.
On Saturday, workers dug a ditch around the building to install wooden supports but left before propping them up. The building collapsed after midnight Saturday before the supports were put in place, police said. Preliminary investigations attributed the collapse to the empty space around the foundations.
Officials quoted Khodeiri as telling prosecutors he did not wait for the engineer to approve his work because, in a telephone conversation they had, the engineer gave him the "green light" to start and assured him "not to worry."
El-Sirafi denied giving any orders of any kind, whether verbal or written, to the contractor, adding that, as an experienced engineer, he never starts work except with the authorisation of municipal authorities.
Prosecutors ordered both men remanded in custody for four days pending further investigations.
Relatives, friends and residents stood around the debris of the building, grieving over their loved-ones. Among the dead was Ashraf Mohamed, found hugging his wife and two sons, aged two and four.
The building fell onto an adjacent school which was empty at the time.
In 1999, at least six buildings and a school playground wall collapsed, killing dozens of people.
The collapsed buildings included a four--floor structure in the same district, Al-Sayeda Zeinab, that came down in October, claiming the lives of three people. In December, more than a dozen people were killed when an apartment block cracked in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, probably because a broken water main had wrecked its foundations.
