ReportWire

Tag: Structural failures

  • Brother finds body Baltimore firefighters missed in building

    Brother finds body Baltimore firefighters missed in building

    [ad_1]

    BALTIMORE — Several hours after firefighters extinguished a warehouse fire in southwest Baltimore early Sunday, the scene was eerily quiet as Donte Craig stepped through the charred rubble, trying to remain hopeful.

    He was looking for his older brother James Craig Jr., who leased the warehouse for his demolition and hauling business. After hearing about the fire, which was reported around 11:30 p.m. Saturday, family members grew increasingly concerned throughout the night because James Craig Jr. wasn’t answering calls or texts.

    Finally, his brother drove to the scene late Sunday morning.

    Inside the building, he found the body of his 45-year-old brother on the second floor. Baltimore Police have launched a homicide investigation.

    As the investigation unfolds, family members are demanding answers. They want to know how firefighters initially failed to realize the building was occupied.

    Their questions add to growing controversy surrounding the Baltimore Fire Department and its policies, which came under scrutiny after three firefighters died responding to a call early this year. The chief resigned last week in response to an investigative report that found numerous deficiencies.

    In response to questions about the warehouse fire, officials said they had no reason to believe anyone was inside the two-story commercial building. They also said the building was ultimately deemed structurally unsafe for firefighters to enter.

    But the Craig family said there were signs of occupancy, including about a half-dozen dogs spending the night in an adjacent enclosure. First responders had the dogs taken to an animal shelter, according to family members.

    James Craig Jr. used the first floor of the warehouse as a workshop, but he also had a bedroom upstairs where he sometimes stayed after working late. He collapsed near the top of the stairs, according to his brother.

    “He was trying to get out,” Donte Craig said in an interview at the scene Tuesday afternoon.

    He pointed to the staircase leading to the second floor. While parts of the building were severely damaged from the flames — including sections of the walls and floorboards that were reduced to charcoal and ash — the metal staircase remained intact.

    Donte Craig said he easily walked up the stairs Sunday morning and spotted his brother’s body before reaching the top. He questioned why firefighters didn’t make a similar effort.

    “They’ve got a lot to answer for,” said father James Craig Sr. “Why couldn’t they walk up one flight of steps? Maybe my son could still be alive.”

    The criticism comes amid existing turmoil for the Baltimore Fire Department. Chief Niles Ford, who had led the department since 2014, resigned last week after an investigative report found numerous deficiencies. The report examined the department’s response to a southwest Baltimore rowhouse fire that left three firefighters dead.

    Among the investigative findings: There was no program to notify firefighters about vacant and unsafe homes or standard procedures for battling fires and coordinating EMS responses at vacant buildings. The report also cited a culture of competition among firefighters that may have led to increased risk-taking.

    In that case, there were signs of a previous fire and structural instability, but firefighters entered the building anyway, officials have said.

    Baltimore’s high concentration of vacant buildings present a unique danger to firefighters. A Baltimore Sun investigation showed vacant homes in Baltimore burn at twice the national rate, but gaps in record-keeping have limited what firefighters know before proceeding inside.

    At the scene of the recent warehouse fire, firefighters initially entered the building and “performed interior operations to battle the fire,” department spokesperson Blair Adams said. But then the incident commander and safety officer discovered “some visual signs of structural instability” and ordered immediate evacuation. At that point, firefighters battled the fire from outside.

    The fire was placed under control around 1 a.m. Sunday, officials said.

    “There was no reason to believe anyone was inside,” Adams said in a text message Tuesday.

    She said firefighters responded to the scene again on Sunday after the body was discovered. Baltimore Police homicide and arson units also responded. Officials said the cause is still under investigation.

    James Craig Sr. said he’s not satisfied with the city’s response.

    “I’m getting assumptions; I’m not getting any facts,” he said Tuesday afternoon during a phone conversation with a homicide detective assigned to the case. “You have to remember, the reality of this is that I lost my son. That’s the reality of the whole thing.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Landslide leaves up to a dozen missing on Italian island

    Landslide leaves up to a dozen missing on Italian island

    [ad_1]

    MILAN — Heavy rainfall triggered landslides early Saturday on the southern Italian island of Ischia that collapsed buildings and left as many as 12 people missing.

    Italy’s interior minister said no deaths had yet been confirmed, appearing to contradict an early announcement by another senior politician.

    “At the moment there are no confirmed deaths,” said Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, speaking from the firefighters emergency coordination center.

    Italian Vice Premier Matteo Salvini, who is also the infrastructure minister, earlier had said that eight deaths had been confirmed, speaking to reporters at the opening of a subway extension in Milan.

    The prefecture for the Naples region, which includes Ischia, said at least 12 people were missing.

    Video from the island shows paths that the landslides had cut down slopes, leaving behind traces of mud. Streets were impassable and mayors on the island urged people to stay at home. At least 100 people were reported stranded.

    The news agency ANSA reported that at least 10 buildings had collapsed. One family with a newborn that was previously reported missing had been located and was receiving medical care, according to the Naples prefect, Claudio Palomba.

    Firefighters were working on rescue efforts. Reinforcements were being sent from nearby Naples, but were encountering difficulties in reaching the island either by motorboat or helicopter due to the weather.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Indonesian rescuers focus on landslide as quake toll rises

    Indonesian rescuers focus on landslide as quake toll rises

    [ad_1]

    CIANJUR, Indonesia — On the fourth day of an increasingly urgent search, Indonesian rescuers narrowed their work Thursday to a landslide where dozens are believed trapped after an earthquake killed at least 271 people, more than a third of them children.

    Many of the more than 1,000 rescue personnel are using backhoe loaders, sniffer dogs and life detectors — as well as jackhammers and bare hands — to speed up the search in the worst-hit area of Cijendil village, where people are believed still stuck after a landslide set off by Monday’s quake left tons of mud, rocks and trees in Cugenang sub-district.

    Indonesian President Joko Widodo visited Cianjur on Thursday and said that their focus will be on one location where 39 are still missing.

    “The search process will be our priority for now. Concentrate there. And this afternoon we will concentrate on this one point for search,” Widodo said.

    “Steep conditions and it is still raining and there are still aftershocks. The soil is unstable, so you need to be careful,” he said. “But the Minister of Public Works has ordered his staff, who are used to doing cut and fill. I think this can be done soon.”

    He added there are also obstacles in distributing supplies to the injured and displaced who are spread out and hard to reach.

    “We hope all victims can be found soon,” Henri Alfiandi, chief of the National Search and Rescue Agency, said Thursday.

    On Wednesday, searchers rescued a 6-year-old boy who was trapped for two days under the rubble of his collapsed house.

    More than 2,000 people were injured in the quake that displaced at least 61,000 people to evacuation centers and other shelters after at least 56,000 houses were damaged. The National Disaster Mitigation Agency has said 171 public facilities were destroyed, including 31 schools.

    Suharyanto, chief of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, said 100 of the 271 confirmed deaths were children.

    Rescue efforts were temporarily suspended Wednesday as heavy monsoon rains fell.

    The 5.6 magnitude of Monday’s earthquake would not typically be expected to cause serious damage. But the quake was shallow and shook a densely populated area that lacks earthquake-resistant infrastructure. Weak aftershocks continued until Thursday morning.

    More than 2.5 million people live in mountainous Cianjur district, including about 175,000 in its main town, which has the same name.

    President Joko Widodo visited Cianjur on Tuesday and pledged to rebuild its infrastructure and provide assistance of up to 50 million rupiah ($3,180) to each resident whose house was damaged.

    Indonesia is frequently struck by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis because of its location on the arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin known as the “Ring of Fire.”

    ———

    Associated Press writer Edna Tarigan in Jakarta contributed to this report.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • 162 dead as Indonesia quake topples homes, buildings, roads

    162 dead as Indonesia quake topples homes, buildings, roads

    [ad_1]

    CIANJUR, Indonesia — Rescuers on Tuesday struggled to find more bodies from the rubble of homes and buildings toppled by an earthquake that killed at least 162 people and injured hundreds on Indonesia’s main island of Java.

    More heavy equipment reached the hardest-hit city of Cianjur in the country’s most densely populated province of West Java, where the magnitude 5.6 land-based quake struck Monday afternoon. Terrified residents fled into the street, some covered in blood and debris.

    Damaged roads and bridges, power blackouts and lack of heavy equipment previously hampered Indonesia’s rescuers after the quake set off a landslide that blocked streets and buried several houses and motorists.

    Power supplies and phone communications have begun to improve in the quake-hit areas on Tuesday.

    Many of the dead were public school students who had finished their classes for the day and were taking extra lessons at Islamic schools when the buildings collapsed, West Java Gov. Ridwan Kamil said as he announced the latest death toll in the remote, rural area.

    Hospitals were overwhelmed by injured people, and the toll was expected to rise. No estimates were immediately available because of the area’s far-flung, rural population, but many structures collapsed, and residents and emergency workers braced for grim news.

    Operations were focused on about a dozen locations in Cianjur, where people are still believed trapped, said Endra Atmawidjaja, the Public Works and Housing spokesperson.

    “We are racing with time to rescue people,” Atmawidjaja said, adding that seven excavators and 10 large trucks have been deployed from neighboring Bandung and Bogor cities to continue clearing trees and soils that blocked roads linking Cianjur and Cipanas towns.

    Cargo trucks carrying food, tents, blankets and other supplies from the capital, Jakarta, were arriving early Tuesday for distribution in temporary shelters. Still, thousands spent the night in the open fearing aftershocks.

    “Buildings were completely flattened,” said Dwi Sarmadi, who works for an Islamic educational foundation in a neighboring district.

    Roughly 175,000 people live in the town of Cianjur, part of a mountainous district of the same name with more than 2.5 million people. Known for their piety, the people of Cianjur live mostly in towns of one- and two-story buildings and in smaller homes in the surrounding countryside.

    Kamil said that more than 13,000 people whose homes were heavily damaged were taken to evacuation centers.

    Emergency workers treated the injured on stretchers and blankets outside hospitals, on terraces and in parking lots. The injured, including children, were given oxygen masks and IV lines. Some were resuscitated.

    Hundreds of people gathered outside the Cianjur regional hospital building, waiting for treatment

    “I was working inside my office building. The building was not damaged, but as the quake shook very strongly, many things fell. My leg was hit by heavy stuff,” Sarmadi said.

    Sarmadi was waiting near a tent outside the hospital after some overwhelmed clinics were unable to see him. Many people were coming in worse shape.

    “I really hope they can handle me soon,” he said.

    Hasan, a construction worker who, like many Indonesians, uses one name, is also one of the survivors that is being taken to the hospital.

    “I fainted. It was very strong,” said Hasan. “I saw my friends running to escape from the building. But it was too late to get out and I was hit by the wall.”

    The magnitude 5.6 quake was at a depth of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) below the Earth’s surface, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It also caused panic in the greater Jakarta area, about a three hour-drive away, where high-rises swayed and some people evacuated.

    In many homes in Cianjur, chunks of concrete and roof tiles fell inside bedrooms.

    Shopkeeper Dewi Risma was working with customers when the quake hit, and she ran for the exit.

    “The vehicles on the road stopped because the quake was very strong,” she said. “I felt it shook three times, but the first one was the strongest one for around 10 seconds. The roof of the shop next to the store I work in had collapsed, and people said two had been hit.”

    Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysical Agency recorded at least 25 aftershocks.

    The country of more than 270 million people is frequently struck by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis because of its location on the arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin known as the “Ring of Fire.”

    In February, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake killed at least 25 people and injured more than 460 in West Sumatra province. In January 2021, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake killed more than 100 people and injured nearly 6,500 in West Sulawesi province.

    A powerful Indian Ocean quake and tsunami in 2004 killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries, most of them in Indonesia.

    ———

    Tarigan reported from Jakarta. Associated Press writer Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Explosion kills at least 9 on Russia’s island of Sakhalin

    Explosion kills at least 9 on Russia’s island of Sakhalin

    [ad_1]

    A gas explosion in an apartment building has killed at least nine people, including four children, on the island of Sakhalin in far eastern Russia

    A gas explosion in an apartment building Saturday killed at least nine people, including four children, on the island of Sakhalin in far eastern Russia, according local authorities.

    A section of the five-story building in the town of Tymovskoye collapsed after a gas cylinder exploded in one of the apartments at around 5:30 a.m. Moscow time, authorities said.

    Rescue teams were searching for more victims under the rubble, Sakhalin Gov. Valery Limarenko wrote on Telegram. Some of the 33 people known to have lived in the building remained unaccounted for, he said.

    Sakhalin is located in the Pacific Ocean, north of Japan.

    According to Limarenko, residents affected by the explosion were offered temporary shelter and families who lost their homes will be paid 500,000 rubles ($8,217). Relatives of the people killed can expect to receive 1 million rubles ($16,434), he said.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Officials probe India bridge collapse as divers comb river

    Officials probe India bridge collapse as divers comb river

    [ad_1]

    MORBI, India — Scuba divers combed through a river in western India on Wednesday to make certain no bodies were left behind after the collapse of a newly repaired suspension bridge, as officials investigate what led to the tragedy that killed at least 135 people.

    The 143-year-old pedestrian bridge collapsed Sunday evening, sending hundreds plunging into the waters of the Machchu River in Gujarat state’s Morbi town. As rescuers continue to search through the deep and muddy waters, questions have swirled over why the bridge collapsed and who might be responsible. The bridge, built during British colonialism and touted by the state’s tourism website as an “artistic and technological marvel,” had reopened just four days earlier.

    As of Tuesday night, 196 people were rescued and all 10 of the injured were in stable condition. Officials said no one was missing according to their tally, but emergency responders and divers continued search efforts.

    “We want to be on the side of caution,” Police Inspector-General Ashok Yadav had said.

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived at the site Tuesday to inspect the collapsed bridge and visit injured people at a hospital. He also chaired a meeting with officials and urged for a detailed investigation into what went wrong.

    Police have so far arrested nine people — including managers of the bridge’s operator, Oreva Group — and have begun a probe into the incident. State authorities also have a case against Oreva for suspected culpable homicide, attempted culpable homicide and other violations.

    As families mourn the dead, attention has shifted to the quality of the renovation and repair work carried out by Oreva, a group of companies known mainly for making clocks, mosquito zappers and electric bikes.

    On Tuesday evening, prosecutors told a local court that the contractors who oversaw the repair work were not qualified, Press Trust of India news agency reported.

    Citing a forensic report, the prosecution said that while the bridge’s flooring was replaced, its cable was not and so it could not bear the weight of the new flooring, causing the cable to snap.

    In March, the Morbi town government awarded a 15-year contract to to Oreva to maintain and manage the bridge. The same month, Oreva closed the bridge for seven months for repairs.

    The bridge, which spans a wide section of the Machchu river, has been repaired several times in the past and many of its original parts have been replaced over the years. It was reopened Oct. 26, the first day of the Gujarati New Year, which coincides with the Hindu festival season. The attraction drew hundreds of sightseers.

    Sandeepsinh Zala, a Morbi official, told the Indian Express newspaper the company reopened the bridge without first obtaining a “fitness certificate.” That could not be independently verified, but officials said they were investigating.

    A security video of the disaster showed it shaking violently and people trying to hold on to its cables and metal fencing before the aluminum walkway gave out and crashed into the river. The bridge split in the middle with its walkway hanging down and its cables snapped.

    It was unclear how many people were on the bridge when it collapsed. Survivors said it was so densely packed that people were unable to quickly escape when cables began to snap.

    Modi was the top elected official of Gujarat for 12 years before becoming India’s prime minister in 2014. A Gujarat state government election is expected in coming months and opposition parties have demanded a thorough investigation of the accident.

    India’s infrastructure has long been marred by safety problems, and Morbi has suffered other major disasters. In 1979, an upstream dam on the Machchu river burst, sending walls of water into the city and killing hundreds of people in one of India’s biggest dam failures.

    In 2001, thousands of people died in an earthquake in Gujarat. Morbi, 150 kilometers (90 miles) from the quake’s epicenter in Bhuj, suffered widespread damage. According to a report in the Times of India newspaper, the bridge that collapsed Sunday was also severely damaged in that earthquake.

    ———

    Associated Press journalist Ajit Solanki contributed.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Friends, families mourn lives lost in India bridge disaster

    Friends, families mourn lives lost in India bridge disaster

    [ad_1]

    MORBI, India — Naseema Ben Shamdar and seven members of her family were making their way across Morbi’s jam-packed suspension bridge when its cables gave way Sunday, plunging them into the deep, wide waters of Machchu river and killing 134 people.

    In just seconds, Naseema was gasping for breath and trying desperately to swim to shore, struggling through a quagmire of mud and weeds. All around her, people were pleading for help.

    Some of those who fell into the river were stuck in its deep silt. Some were knocked unconscious by the aluminum walkway that crashed into the water along with the hundreds of people who had been walking on it.

    Many tried to climb cables dangling into the water, sometimes losing their grip and falling on others mired in the murky water.

    The disaster in Morbi is one of India’s worst in years. The collapse of the pedestrian bridge while it was crowded with hundreds of holiday goers has raised questions about why the 143-year-old landmark, touted as an artistic and engineering marvel, failed just four days after reopening after months of repairs.

    Police arrested nine people, including managers of the bridge’s operator, Oreva Group, as they began investigating the catastrophe.

    In Morbi, shock and anger were overtaken by mourning and grief. Friends have lost friends and parents have lost children. In many cases, families have lost several members.

    When she surfaced, Naseema could only think of her 21-year-old daughter, Muskan, who was nowhere in sight.

    “One moment she was there with me and the next she was gone. She just disappeared in the water,” Naseema said Tuesday at her home in Morbi. By the time rescuers pulled Naseema to safety, the river had consumed every other family member who had been on the bridge that evening. She lost her daughter, her two nephews, two nieces and two sisters-in-law.

    “We were eight family members there and now I am the only one left alive,” Naseema said, her voice choking with tears. “Everyone is gone.”

    “Everyone I loved is dead,” said Arif Shamdar, a painter. He said that like many others, his daughter and son were excited to visit the bridge and watch the sunset. He stayed behind, asking his wife Aneesa to keep the children, Aliya and Afreed, safe because he expected a huge crowd.

    Barely an hour later, a relative called Shamdar, telling him of the disaster. Rushing to the site, he saw the bridge snapped in two, its metal walkway dangling. Banks on both sides of the river were strewn with bodies. For five hours, Shamdar scoured the waters searching for his family. He swam to the middle of the river. He got on an inflatable raft and screamed their names.

    Crestfallen and anxious, he rushed to a nearby hospital where he saw his two children lying dead on stretchers. His wife was on the floor, also dead.

    “I screamed and screamed and asked doctors to help. But there was nothing they could do. My family had already been dead for hours,” Shamdar said.

    Hundreds of people gathered in his neighborhood Monday for the funeral. His wife, two children, and his niece Muskan were buried in the local graveyard. Three other family members were buried in an ancestral burial ground in a nearby town.

    In the town’s crematoriums and burial grounds, workers said they had never seen so many dead brought for final rites on a single day.

    “I have never seen anything like this in my life,” said Gaffar Shah, caretaker of the main Muslim graveyard in Morbi. He helped bury 25 bodies on Monday. “Entire families have been wiped out,” he said.

    All through Morbi, a city famed for its ceramics and clock industries, friends, relatives and neighbors gathered in the homes of the mourning, emerging from the town’s narrow lanes in twos and threes.

    “We are devastated,” said Raydhan Bhai, whose two nephews drowned in disaster.

    Yash Devadana, 12, and Raj Bhagwanji Bhai, 13, were cousins who lived in the same house. They were good friends, too, their relatives said, always playing together and often swimming in the river.

    On Sunday, the two cousins left for the bridge hand in hand. By midnight, they were both dead, having perished in those same waters.

    As mourners sat beside garlanded photo frames of Yash and Raj on Tuesday, Raydhan Bhai pointed to Yash’s pet dog. It hasn’t eaten, waiting for Yash to return, he said.

    “Yash loved the dog and even slept with it in his bed,” Raydhan Bhai said. “Even his pet has felt Yash’s absence.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Miami building evacuated near site of deadly condo collapse

    Miami building evacuated near site of deadly condo collapse

    [ad_1]

    MIAMI — Residents of a Miami Beach building on the same street where a condominium collapse killed nearly 100 people were forced to evacuate on Thursday evening after officials determined the structure was unsafe and gave orders to leave.

    Miami Beach spokesperson Melissa Berthier said around 4 p.m. Thursday that the city planned to post an unsafe structure notice and order residents of the 14-story Port Royale building to vacate immediately. Around 5 p.m., the condo board sent residents a mandatory notice to vacate by 7 p.m., the Miami Herald reported.

    Residents of the Port Royale said city of Miami Beach officials informed them Wednesday that the building would need to be evacuated, but the notice to leave immediately was not delivered until Thursday, WPLG-TV reported.

    A report from the building’s structural engineer prompted the evacuation notice of the 164-unit structure at 6969 Collins Avenue, which is in the process of undergoing a 50-year recertification.

    The site of the Champlain Towers South condo building in Surfside, Florida, that collapsed in June 2021 and killed 98 people is also on Collins Avenue, about 1.3 miles (2 kilometers) from the Port Royale.

    The disaster at the 12-story oceanfront condo building in Surfside drew the largest non-hurricane emergency response in Florida history, including rescue crews from across the U.S. and as far away as Israel to help local teams search for victims.

    Engineers have recommended additional “shoring” to reinforce areas needing repair be installed in the Port Royale’s garage to support a damaged beam. Officials said they expected the reinforcement to be in place within 10 days, the Miami Herald reported.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Roof collapse kills 9 members of family in northern Pakistan

    Roof collapse kills 9 members of family in northern Pakistan

    [ad_1]

    Police say the roof of a home made of mud and wood in northern Pakistan caved in, killing nine family members, including eight siblings

    PESHAWAR, Pakistan — The roof of a home made of mud and wood in northern Pakistan caved in early Sunday killing nine family members, including eight siblings, police said.

    Police officer Imtiaz Khan said the incident in the town of Chilas in the Gilgit Baltistan region claimed the lives of four daughters and four sons of a restaurant waiter and his wife. Khan said the father was at work when it happened.

    Neighbors who heard the crashing sound of the house coming down rushed to the home but efforts to rescue the family were unsuccessful. Police said the siblings killed were ages 2 to 12.

    Such incidents are not uncommon in Pakistan, where implementation of safety standards is lacking and many people live in poorly constructed structures for lack of financial resources.

    [ad_2]

    Source link