Nine people of a single family have seriously injured when the slab of the fourth floor of the building collapsed in Vasco Da Gama in situated in South Goa. The building is said to be around 36 years old and it was declared unsafe for living by the government. When the slab collapsed all the family members were at home, said the sources. The Incident has occurred at 7.40 pm on Friday.
According to the sources, a slab of the apartment on the fourth floor of the 36-year-old building has caved in the late evening of Friday. The Incident occurred in the Vasco Da Gama in South Goa. When the slab came crashing down at 7.40 pm on Friday all the family members were at home and all nine of them got seriously injured in this accident, said the sources.
According to the police reports, the incident occurred on the fourth floor of ‘Happy Apartment’ at around 7.40 pm. Police said that when the incident occurred the entire Shaikh family was present in the house. “They all were in the flat when a female family member who was present in the hall area fainted due to some illness. In order to help her, other family members who were in their bedrooms rushed towards her. However, due to their weight, an area of 5 square meters of floor caved in and collapsed on the third floor which was vacant. Neighbours and public on site rescued the people trapped under the debris,” an eyewitness told Herald.
Luckily nobody was present in the apartment on the third floor or else big tragedy would have taken place in the building, said the neighbors. According to the sources, immediately after the incident the Fire and Emergency Services personnel rushed to the spot and evacuated the other families living in that building for the purpose of their safety.
The building is located behind the AXIS Bank in Vasco has been completely evacuated by the fire personnel said the sources. All the injured were taken to the government hospital at Chicalim and then to GMC Bambolim. The injured includes 7 major and 2 minors are identified as M D Salim (41), Husna (40), Mehjabi (35), Rukayya (28), Gulshanchan (24), Samrin (19), Zaiduddin (24), Tasniya (5) and Yusuf (2).
Meanwhile, a fire department official informed that the building was declared unsafe after an inspection. “We have handed over the building to the police department so that they can maintain vigil and prevent people from entering in the unsafe building. We had also informed the South Goa collector about the other unsafe building in Vasco so that some decision can be taken to avoid any untoward incident in future,” said fire officer Dilip Dicholkar.
It looks like despite the warnings from fire service department the people were illegally staying in the flats of this 36-year-old building and the accident occurred due to that. Goa has many such buildings, especially the government quarters, which have become unsafe but people are still living in such buildings despite the warnings from the concern authorities. Perhaps this incident might become an eye opener for many and people will take a lesson from this. Let’s hope for the best.
