Man crushed under house

Aug 11, 2011 News

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A 27-year-old man was crushed to death when a D’Urban Street Wortmanville house came crashing down shortly after 17:00 hours yesterday.
Ato Lewis, also known as Ato Benjamin, was emerging from the falling building, located in the block between Louisa Row and Hardina Street, when he was pinned.

 

It took the desperate efforts of neighbours, aided by members of the Guyana Fire Service, almost 20 minutes to free his body, by which time it was too late.
Lewis was pronounced dead on arrival at the Georgetown Hospital where he was immediately rushed after his body was pulled out.
From all accounts, Lewis went back into the house, which was home to four elders and two children, with a view to removing a few household items despite signs that it was about to come crashing down.
His sister, Patricia Carrington, who lived in the house at lot six D’Urban Street, with her children, recalled that they were inside when they heard the creaking sounds of the pillars on which the structure stood.
She said that immediately they decided to vacate the premises.
“He (Lewis) decide fuh tell we leh we go up back and see if we get out anything. like is something he bringing out when de house collapse, …so he ain’t get fuh mek it out, and nothing ain’t get fuh come out either,” Carrington related.

“We come out fuss without nothing after we hear de crack. After we come out and we see it lean, we say maybe we coulda mek it fuh go and tek out things because we get we TV and so. I telling he ‘Ato dis house gon fall now come out’. Me ain’t know if is de door he trying fuh come through when it collapse,” she added.
She said when the house fell it covered her brother and she started to scream since she was convinced that Lewis was in serious trouble.
Clifton Scholl, a neighbour, told the media that he was sitting at the back of a nearby yard when he heard the cracking sounds of wood breaking.

He then got up to see what it was, and saw that the house was already flat on the ground.
He said that he soon learnt that a man was trapped underneath and he immediately began assisting persons to get him out.
At the time, no one knew exactly where Lewis was and it was only after several minutes that rescuers saw his hands.
“As they keep removing the flooring and the boards out here, I recognize the clothes, then I say look the man is here. They were breaking all over not knowing where he was, but as they remove the boards we saw him. He wasn’t making any sound, but he make a move with his hand, and we started clearing the area. He was still alive when we got to him,” Scholl recalled.
Another neighbour who gave his name as Junior called ‘Bull’ confirmed what Scholl said.
Junior told media personnel at the scene that he was under the house a few minutes before it fell and warned the occupants to vacate it immediately.
“Me ain’t know if dey de going back fuh loose out de dog, because a dog been tie under de house. I tell them don’t go under de house because it gon come down anytime, but we ain’t know is so fast it woulda come down,” Junior recalled.
He said that by the time he went over the road he heard the sound of the house crashing to the ground.
When he ran back over, Lewis’s sister screamed that her brother was trapped under the collapsed structure.
“We try lifting it (house) up but we couldn’t ah lift it and de fire people dem come with one and two police and we lift out dem boards, and is so we get he out,” the neighbour said.
Scores of persons rushed to the scene upon hearing that a man was pinned. Even passing motorists curiously queried what had transpired and the police were confronted with a situation where they had to be constantly controlling the crowd.
Family members were inconsolable at the scene, since most of them knew that Lewis could not have survived even after he was rushed to the hospital.
Fire Chief Marlon Gentle told reporters at the scene that his department received a call that a house had fallen on D’Urban Street and there was a casualty.

He pointed out that the fire tenders are always equipped with equipment to respond to such emergencies, and not just fires.
“We knew that there would have been two threats; firstly persons might be trapped in the building and secondly, the building still had electrical power, so it would have been a structural hazard and a life-saving operation, basically,” Gentle explained.
He said that upon arrival, the firemen were told that one person was trapped under the building and they immediately went into action using a hydraulic lift to raise the house and free Lewis’ body.
“It’s not the first time that we have done incidents like this, rescuing people, there was a building on Brickdam, there was one in Alberttown, there was one somewhere in Queenstown which we’ve responded to. Our role here was basically a rescue operation, which we are geared to do,” Gentle told Kaieteur News.
The Fire Chief told this newspaper that the building, like many others around the city, was a structural hazard, since for some time now it was observed to be leaning.
“Of course we have been doing our part in identifying buildings for demolition,” Gentle explained.
The firemen subsequently combed the site to ensure that there was no other person trapped under it.
Incidentally, the family’s dog which was also trapped under the building survived.

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