Miscellaneous

Citation

(2007), "Miscellaneous", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 16 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2007.07316dac.007

Miscellaneous

26 December 2005 Collapse of swimming pool roof, Moscow, Russia

A roof collapse that killed 28 people at a Moscow water park nearly two years ago was caused by design flaws, the chief prosecutor said today, blaming the architect and an official who approved the plans. The collapse, which injured more than 100 others, was caused in part by “crude miscalculations” that made the concrete-and-glass dome over the Transvaal water park unsafe, chief prosecutor Anatoly Zuyev said in televised comments announcing the probe’s findings. He reiterated that no evidence of explosives or any other attack was found in the ruins of the indoor park in southwestern Moscow whose roof collapsed on swimmers on February 14, 2004. The findings will be sent to court for trial. Zuyev said the design cut corners by calling for concrete in the roof instead of a more expensive design using lighter materials. The findings blame Nodar Kancheli, the building’s architect, and Anatoly Voronin, the head of a state agency that signed off on the plans, Mosgosexpertiza, according to reports on Russian television networks. The prosecution’s report accuses them of criminal negligence causing death. Prosecutors said in April that they had filed criminal negligence charges against Kancheli. It was unclear whether the investigation report completed Monday was in support of those charges or meant the start of a new case. Russian media predicted it would take a long time for the case to come to trial. Defence lawyer Yuri Kostanov said on NTV television that the report was not sufficiently specific. Kancheli has rejected allegations of design flaws.

29 December 2005 Avalanche, Pakistan

An avalanche killed at least 25 people who were digging for gemstones in a remote area of northwestern Pakistan, police said. Regional police chief Ataullah Wazir said the avalanche happened near Kohistan, 210 miles north-east of Peshawar. The area is rich with precious stones, which villagers sell on the open market. Wazir said rescuers had recovered some bodies.

2 January 2006 Collapse of ice rink roof, Bad Reichenhall, Germany

The roof of an ice skating rink in a southern German town has collapsed, trapping up to 50 people, police said. The accident happened about 16:00, local time, in the town of Bad Reichenhall. It was unclear what caused the collapse but it came after a heavy snowfall. Fritz Braun, a police spokesman, said: “We expect there are several seriously injured and possibly also dead.” He said that, by 17:20 hrs, one seriously injured person and ten slightly injured people had been rescued. He added that fire officers were “trying to shore up the remains of the roof to get to the injured.” Heavy snow made the task especially difficult. Hanna Hutschenreiter, a spokesman for Bavarian Red Cross, believed “several” people had been killed. She said rescue services had been called in from a wide area around Bad Reichenhall, including from Salzburg in Austria.

4 January 2006

Rescue workers today recovered three more bodies from beneath a collapsed skating rink in southern Germany, raising the death toll to 14, and said there were no further signs of life as they searched for a missing woman. The bodies of two boys and a girl were found today, and a 40-year-old woman remained missing. The boys’ bodies were found earlier, and the girl’s was found later with the help of a searchand-rescue dog, police official Peter Huber said. “We have to give the sad news that we have found another victim,” said Georg Grabner, chief administrator of the surrounding district of Berchtesgaden. “Only one more person lies buried under the rubble.” Hopes faded of finding survivors from Monday’s (January 2) accident at the end of a second night of snow and freezing temperatures. Rescuers digging with shovels and their hands found a five-year-old girl alive with only minor injuries Monday night, but no other survivors have been found since. More than half the surface of the rink had been cleared of debris from the collapsed roof by midday today. Nine children were among those already confirmed dead in the accident, which happened after heavy snowfall Monday afternoon, when about 50 people were inside, including many schoolchildren on Christmas break. The search was interrupted last night because authorities feared the roof might collapse further. They brought in new equipment to remove large chunks of rubble and clear the way for rescuers to safely return early this morning. Authorities also moved cars parked in an underground garage beneath the rink and braced the site from below. Special cranes were brought in to clear the way, and workers spent the night tearing away pieces of the facade and the remains of the roof. Rescuers had difficulty making progress due to fears the rubble would shift and concern that heavy equipment would crush any survivors. Prosecutors launched an investigation for possible negligence, an automatic step after a fatal accident. Experts suggested a structural flaw was a more likely cause of the collapse than the heavy snow. City officials said they had measured the snow on the roof Monday and found it well within the building’s margin of safety. However, town officials had planned to close the rink after the end of the day’s public skating because the heavy, wet snow was continuing. The roof collapsed at 16:00 hrs, just as the rink was closing for the day.

5 January 2006

Rescuers in the town of Bad Reichenhall today recovered the body of the last victim of the collapse of a skating rink. Local officials scrambled to defuse the rage of residents suspicious the building had been neglected. The rink’s snow-covered roof collapsed suddenly Monday afternoon (January 2), crushing and burying the mostly youthful skaters beneath splintered beams and twisted metal. Twelve children and three adults died, and 18 people were hospitalised. The last fatality – a 40-year-old woman – was carried from the scene early this morning. All 15 died instantly, said Edith Tutsch-Bauer, head of the nearby Salzburg medical examiner ’s office, which conducted the autopsies. The 15 victims were all local residents. Police spokesman Hubertus Andrae said officers confiscated 40 piles of documents from the sports hall and city offices as part of prosecutors’ investigation into possible negligent homicide. Samples of materials from the building were sent to labs for testing, although a report was not expected before April, Andrae said. Many residents say the fact that the arena’s roof had leaked for years was warning enough that it was deteriorating, and that officials should have found the funds to fix it rather than spending on new thermal baths and a shopping street popular with tourists.

31 December 2005 Landslide, Yemen

At least 56 bodies have now been recovered from the ruins of a small Yemeni village that was devastated in a landslide earlier this week, a relief official said today. “Relief operations are still going on to find those missing, which are estimated at over 50,” the official said, adding that there was little hope of finding any survivors. Rocks slid off a mountain on Wednesday (December 28) and crushed 27 houses in al-Dhofair village, about 20 km southwest of the capital Sanaa.

3 January 2006

Rescue operations are ongoing for the victims of last week’s landslide in the remote village of al-Dhafeer, some 50 km west of the capital, Sana. Efforts to recover the bodies of victims have been hampered by the presence of enormous boulders that have prevented the use of proper digging machinery, according to Hashim al-Zein, country representative of the World Health Organisation. “We’re facing a lot of difficulty in pulling the dead from destroyed houses,” he said. The governor of Sana has forecast that the search-and-rescue process would last several more days. On December 29, a rocky hill overlooking al-Dhafeer collapsed onto the village, destroying about 15 houses. Since then, around 30 other families have fled their homes in fear of further landslides. Geologists are still investigating the cause of the natural disaster. The death toll from the incident has increased to 65, according to Yemeni officials. However, the Yemeni Red Crescent Association (YRCA) has stated that only 16 bodies have been recovered from the rubble so far. The total number of dead is expected to increase to 90 by the time rescue operations are concluded, according to al-Zein.

23 January 2006 Collapse of building, Nairobi, Kenya

A four-storey building has collapsed in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, leaving dozens of people injured. Rescuers are digging through the rubble with their bare hands and there are chaotic scenes, a BBC correspondent reports from the scene. A nurse at Nairobi’s Kenyatta General Hospital told AP more than 50 people had been admitted and more were arriving every minute. Kenyan TV said 200 people were in or around the building when it fell. Witnesses said they feared many people might be trapped under the rubble. Bulldozers and ambulances arrived at the scene in central Nairobi, and passers by helped professionals search the debris. “I can confirm that four people are dead,” Farid Abdulkadir, the director of disaster response for the Red Cross in Kenya, said. “Our team has seen their bodies, but there could be many more dead,” he said. “Our team on the ground is having problems accessing the site of the collapse because of the confusion.” Earlier, police officials told AFP that about 200 people had been wounded in the collapse. Mr Abdulkadir says so far two people have been pulled out of the rubble alive. He says others have been heard calling for help. Rescue teams, including bulldozers and Red Cross ambulances, are at the site.

24 January 2006

The owner and contractor of a building that collapsed in Kenya’s capital, killing at least 14 people, were rushing workers to complete the structure before the concrete on lower levels had set, the government said today. “They were not being allowed to spend the normal 21 days to let the concrete set. It was taking much less before they were building another layer,” government spokesman Alfred Mutua said. “We have been looking for the owner, the contractor, the superintendent; the people who are directly involved in this.” Police said detectives have opened a criminal investigation and were looking for the building’s owner and general contractor. Investigators were examining conflicting reports about the building’s plans and progress, but workers appeared to have been working on most of the five planned floors when the building tumbled to the ground. Still-wet concrete could be seen falling off floor slabs’ metal reinforcing bars as wreckage was hauled off the site today. Relatives said at least ten people were missing, but rescue workers did not know how many people were still trapped in the rubble, Health Minister Charity Ngilu said. Rescuers pulled four survivors from the rubble as military rescue teams from the United States, Britain and Israel arrived in Nairobi to help. The foreigners brought power tools to cut through concrete and iron rods, which dramatically sped up the rescue effort 30 hours after the collapse. The Israelis also used high-tech detection equipment to look for survivors. “The rescue effort is very complicated. There is very narrow space to work there. There’s lots and lots of rubble,” US Army Col Donald Zimmer said at the site. President Mwai Kibaki returned early from an African Union summit in neighbouring Sudan. Israeli Maj Gen Yitzhak Gershon, leader of a 140-member team of soldiers and other rescuers, said he was confident more would be rescued. “If there are holes or air pockets, we can save many people,” he said before his team pulled out two survivors. Two other survivors were pulled out just before dawn today. Ten bodies were recovered from the rubble. Hospital officials say four people died while being treated for critical injuries. About 280 construction workers were at the site in central Nairobi when the building came down, survivors said. Officials have accounted for 106 people, including the dead and injured. No able to provide authorities with a detailed list of who was at the site, police said, and it was unclear how many workers fled in the moments before the collapse.

25 January 2006

An Israeli rescue team pulled three more bodies from a collapsed building early today, bringing the death toll to 17 as hopes faded that survivors trapped for a third day beneath the rubble would be pulled out alive. Police also stepped up their search for the owners of the building, who allegedly rushed construction workers to put up new floors, even before concrete on the lower level had set properly. Rescuers from the United States and Britain helped Kenyan workers in their search for survivors possibly trapped in air pockets.

29 January 2006 Collapse of trade hall roof, Katowice, Poland

A roof collapsed at an exhibition hall in Poland packed with hundreds of people, killing at least 60, and officials said today they feared the death toll could rise. As temperatures plunged to minus 15 Celsius overnight, rescuers using floodlights battled through snow and debris to try to find survivors from yesterday’s disaster in the southern city of Chorzow. About 140 people were also injured when the metal roof of the modern building, the size of a soccer field, collapsed during a gathering of pigeon enthusiasts from across Europe. “I can confirm that 60 people have died and we are afraid that this might not be the final figure,” fire brigade spokesman Jaroslaw Wojtasik said. Officials said the dead included foreigners and identified one as a Belgian. Hospitals said five Germans, a Czech and a Belgian were injured. The fire brigade and police said the weight of snow on the roof caused the collapse but the building’s manager told Polish television that snow had been regularly cleared from the roof. “We heard something snap like a match breaking and people started to panic right away, realising what was happening,” one unnamed witness told the TVN24 television station from hospital. “I started to run and something fell on me, others trampled over me and I was able to crawl out on hands and knees.” Dog rescue team head Jan Woloszyn told TVN24 today: “Trained dogs have found no trace of life under the rubble.” Another rescue official, Leszek Suski, told a news conference: “With such a low temperature the chances of finding someone alive are slim but we still have hope. We estimate that under the debris there still might be a dozen or even several dozens of people.” Earlier, some of those trapped under the wreckage used mobile phones to contact rescuers. Rescuers blew hot air into the collapsed structure in hopes of helping survivors. Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz visited the site and said rescue operations would go on through the night. The exhibition of racing pigeons, one of the largest in Europe, attracted participants from Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Ukraine and Poland, the event’s web site said. Nearly 1,000 police, firefighters and soldiers were involved in the rescue operation and workers from local mines were also called in. Heavy cutting equipment and thermal imaging gear were brought in.

12 February 2006 Gas leak at coal mine, Dengfeng, Henan Province, China

The death toll from a poisonous gas leak at a coal mine in central China has risen to 15 after the last body was found today, state media said. The gas leak occurred late Friday (February 10) at the Malingshan coal mine in the city of Dengfeng, Henan province, while 56 miners were working in the shaft, Xinhua news agency reported. Forty-one workers escaped, the report said. Local officials are now dealing with the work of compensating victims’ families, Xinhua said.