ALBERTON -On Monday August 18 they heard sirens and saw emergency vehicles passing their offices in Meyersdal. They also received a message from the Alberton Community Policing Forum that the structure collapsed and that there were persons trapped under the rubble.
One of the employees offered their services, and they were asked to assist where they could. The company’s employees are trained in first aid, and they also have experience on large commercial construction projects and as a professional rigger.
The employee of Ultimate Edge Concepts also advised the scene management on what could have happened, assessed what was safe and how they could go about the rescue as safely as possible.
“This was an effort from five different emergency departments coming together to assist and rescue those trapped,” the employee explained.
To the Ultimate Edge employee it appeared that it was a large structure that was not supported properly and lacked reinforcement to stabilise the structure. On a closer inspection of the rubble he found that the concrete beams on which the Eco Slabs rested on were not reinforced entirely, only in the corners of the slabs. The weight of the structure was too heavy for the design.
After viewing the original draughts for the building and the drawings contractors were using, he could confirm that it needed a support midway. It should have been reinforced with steel mesh, better known as re-bar. The weight of the Eco Slabs was too much for the length.
Eco Slabs are used for platforms, secondary floors and it is lighter and fairly sturdy. Most of the time these slabs are covered with screet or plaster (materials that are lightweight). In the case of the Eco Estate structure, the Eco Slabs were covered with concrete. According to the employee in this case the slabs should have received a wire mesh on top, and then the concrete should have been poured.
“Eco slabs have the same integrity of a hollowed-out brick, strong and sturdy, but apply too much pressure and it crumbles,” he explained.
Alterations on the drawing plans showed that a load bearing wall had to be removed, and there was a jack hammer among the rubble that could have contributed to the collapse.
“As a health and safety official, I am bound to ask for the safety file for the contractors and quickly established that no such file existed. A safety file is standard procedure to any size project, and shows letters of good standing and the competence of the contractor and on-going training. This along with a call register, which would have determined how many people were working that day and what their daily plan was and who was in charge of safety,” he explained why it was difficult to determine how many people were trapped.
“It’s rather hard to say if it’s negligence or that it was completely a structural fault, but I certainly saw that the structure itself needed a support structure far more sound that the one I had seen,” he added.
