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The emergency disaster have cleared 85% of the rubble at George building collapse.
(The Post News)- Emergency and disaster personnel have cleared about 85% of the rubble from the multi-story apartment building that collapsed on Monday afternoon, May 6, while under construction. The building located on 75 Victoria Street in George, Western Cape, has claimed 33 lives out of the 81 people that were present on site, while 12 are in the hospital and 19 remain unaccounted for.
Rescuers are now working on removing the last two slabs, which are sandwiched together. This is the only area on site that has not yet been searched. In an effort to locate workers that remain unaccounted for, demolition has been underway concurrently with search and rescue operations.
According to authorities, it is unlikely that the 19 missing workers remain trapped underneath the rubble. The Western Cape Minister of Local Government, Anton Bredell, said that they hope that the number of people present on site is not really 81 and that there are less than 19 people trapped in the rubble, but they will carry on with the search.
One of the survivors, Delvin Safers, who was rescued after 25 hours of being buried in the rubble, visited the site. Recalling the events that took place during the collapse, Safers said that he and his colleague had just gotten back from lunch and had to fix a problem on the third floor, and in a matter of seconds, the building collapsed.
He said everything happened in a split second, and he did not see the building collapse, but he felt it. He described the ordeal of being burried under the rubble, saying that after laying in the dark for about 30 minutes, it clicked to him that his phone was in his pocket and he used it to create some light, and upon realizing that his right arm and legs were trapped, he began to clear the rubble one piece at a time so he could move freely.
He conveyed his condolences to the families that lost their loved ones and expressed his devastation over his four colleagues who did not make it out alive. He also mentioned how appreciative he is to have survived a situation where there was a high possibility of his death.
The collapse of the multi-story apartment building has been regarded as the most catastrophic incident in the history of the construction industry. George Local Municipality fire chief, Neels Bernard, expressed optimism that the recovery effort could be concluded by Friday.
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What caused the building to collapse?
The George municipality has urged the public to refrain from spreading “malicious rumours” about what led to the multistorey Victoria Street building to collapse.