TRAGEDY AS THREE STOREY BUILDING COLLAPSES IN ENUGU

A three-storey building has collapsed at number seventeen Chief Ezulike Street, off One Day, Agbani Road, Enugu.

The building, which is under construction since 2014, has almost reached its completion stage before it collapsed to its foundation last night. An eyewitness, who pleaded anonymity, told Radio Nigeria that the incident, which occurred around seven o’clock in the evening, caused confusion and panic among residents of the area.

“We were standing here, all of a sudden we heard a noise, the whole land was shaking, everybody was afraid, so people just started running healter skelter, I never knew where I was running to.
Like me in particular, I thought it was rapture, so we looked up, we saw something like dusty substances. So before we knew it, it was this building that was falling, dust covered everywhere. It was a kind of dark and under thirty seconds, everything happened and we saw this house in this state,” the eyewitness narrated.

Though no one could say the cause of the collapse, a structural engineer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, urged relevant government authority to get the root of the incident. The engineer explained to Radio Nigeria the possible causes of building collapse.

“Wrong use of materials, like if you use inadequate sizes of rods to do the structure, it could cause the building to collapse. Wrong mixture of concrete materials could cause building collapse.

“Wrong re-enforcement, even if you use the right sizes of rods but wrong placement of the reinforcement materials could also cause a building to have a problem.

“Again, it could be wrong foundation: may be you have a different engineer that did the foundation of the house up to a certain level and then the landlord may have a problem with the engineer and engages another person. The new engineer may be deceived by the owner of the house over the strength of the foundation and the engineer will load three decks on top of a foundation that could carry a maximum of two storey building,” the structural engineer explained.

Notwithstanding that nobody died or was injured when the incident happened, some of the residents expressed concern over the safety of nearby buildings as the collapse shook the ground in the entire street.

In the meantime, the Enugu Capital Territory Development Authority (ECTDA) has visited and sealed the building.

CHUKWUBUIKE MADU

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