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Crushing death…Eight-year-old survivor told sister to run, as house came crashing down
Eight-year-old Joshua Richards told his sister to run before their aunt’s Lot 317 La Bonne Intention, East Coast Demerara home came crashing down on them around 15:00 hrs on Friday, killing his sibling.
The Craig Primary School student managed to escape the tragedy, because he was not in the centre of the building where his sister was located—in fact, he was near the end and when his aunt, Wanita Ramgolam shouted for them to run, he ran. His feet were caught under the collapsed structure.
Richards, who is being treated at the Georgetown Public Hospital for minor injuries, said that as he was running, he shouted for his sister to run fast, since she was swinging in a hammock that was tied at the centre of the house.
The boy recalled what transpired to his mother, Renita Ramgolam, yesterday, when she visited him at the hospital.
“He said he see when the house was falling and when his aunt tell them to run, both of them started running, but his sister was too far back and he tell her to run, but she couldn’t make it,” the children’s mother said while adding that her son only sustained bruises on his feet.
“One of his knees is swollen, but he is okay. The doctors said that they have to run some more tests on him before they discharge him,” the woman said.
Amber Richards, 12, of Canal Number one died on the spot after being pinned under the collapsed structure for more than an hour.
She was crushed to death—her skull, back and feet were flattened. Neighbours had to use a power saw to cut the flooring of the structure before they could have gotten to her lifeless body.
Their aunt said that her sister and estranged husband, Nigel Richards, only sent their only two children to spend a week with her last Sunday.
The woman explained that she had just finished taking a bath and went upstairs to get dressed and left her niece and nephew swinging in the hammock downstairs—the hammock was tied to two of the house’s posts.
It is suspected that the “swinging” might have contributed to the house falling to the ground.
Ramgolam’s children, Selena and Michael, along with her husband, Mahendra, were in the upper flat of the house.
”I was putting on my clothes and then I feel the house start tremble and shaking up bad and I fall on the bed then I realize the house fall down and I start hollering, and I hear my nephew calling for “aunty, aunty” and my niece screaming hard, hard,” Ramgolam cried.
She added that she wrapped herself with a towel and rushed out to see what was happening.
”When I come outside, I see my nephew crying and I couldn’t help him. We tried to lift him out, but half of his body was under the house.”
According to the devastated woman, the house covered her niece. “We only hear she screaming. We couldn’t see her. She was hollering for me, but I couldn’t save her.”
By the time neighbours got to the 12-year-old child, she was already dead. “She stop screaming,” Wanita Ramgolam said as she burst out into tears.
The woman explained that shortly before the incident, her niece and nephew were playing with her two children. They were also looking forward for their mini vacation at her home.
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