FROM THE RUBBLE!

A four-storey residential building collapsed in Nigeria's biggest city of Lagos on tuesday, march 25, 2009, killing at least 11 people some of them children! The residential building in the densely populated idi-araba neighbourhood collapsed late tuesday 25th with its concreate floors concertinated, trapping scores of people inside and sending twisted metal and rubble into the streets nearby.

Construction workers from a nearby site brought excavators to try to lift the roof off the collapsed building to allow the rescue workers to get inside. Substandard materials and the disregard for building regulations mean such collapses are not uncommon in Africa's most populous nation, where infrastructure is old and poorly maintained!

The Red Cross set up a tracing centre to determine how many people were still missing! A four-year old boy was among the victims that was pulled out from the rubble after concerted efforts of the rescuers!  As such, residents pointed to the rubble to try to help the rescue workers find relatives that were still trapped while few others pick remains they could find in the rubble!

.............'Being trapped in the rubble of a four-storey building and still surviving after 21 hours is going to be a miracle".....! Clothes of victims hanged in the twisted irons and a Bible found in between! 

As a news document,  "From the Rubble" reminds us of our undoings and disregard for human lives in this part of the world!

Akintunde

2009