ROOF COLLAPSE IN DWARKA HOUSE CLAIMS COUPLE
Collapse was caused by water leakage in house, investigation reveals
In the last week, four buildings have collapsed in various parts of the National Capital Region, with twin building falling in Greater Noida last Tuesday, an under-construction structure collapsing in Noida on Friday night and another falling in Ghaziabad.
On Monday, Delhi joined this unfortunate list after a husband and wife died when the roof of their residence in Hari Vihar area of Dwarka fell on them while they were sleeping. Fortunately, their three children escaped with only minor injuries.
Police claimed that during investigation, it came to light that water leakage had made the walls of the house structurally weak, causing the roof to collapse.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Dwarka) Anto Alphonse said the incident came to light early Monday morning when Dwarka North police station received a PCR call about the roof collapse in Kakrola dairy at Hari Vihar.
Immediately, assistant subinspector Roshan Lal and other police officials rushed to the spot of the accident.
“At house number RZ-92 in Hari Vihar, roof of the one-room house found had collapsed and a family of five members was under the debris,” said the DCP.
The family was taken to Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Hospital by a PCR team and CATS ambulance, but the couple, identified as Sunil and Rachna, both 40, were declared brought dead.
Their three children Vaibhav (19), Gulshan (16) and Gungun (9) are reportedly fine.
Police said that according to Vaibhav, due to the water leakage problem, the T-iron used to hold the weight of the roof become weak with time at the house, which was owned by Sunil.
“They had also put a layer of bricks on the roof to stop the leakage of water. The weak T-iron rods were unable to take the load of the roof, hence it collapsed,” said a police officer.
Post-mortem of the deceased is being conducted at DDU Hospital, after which the bodies will be handed over to their kin.
The heavy rains across the national Capital and its surrounding areas possibly increased the water leakage in the house, causing the roof to become weaker and finally collapsing.
Last Tuesday, two buildings collapsed in Bisrakh area of Greater Noida killing nine persons.
On Sunday, in Ghaziabad, a five-storey building collapsed, from where rescue teams retrieved two dead bodies.
As per data from the Delhi Fire Services (DFS), between 2017 and 2018, it received more than 29,000 calls of different incidents and disasters, during which 1,767 persons were injured and 318 died. The casualties in these incidents include fire deaths, sewer deaths, road accident victims, drowning victims and building collapse fatalities.
Meanwhile, between 2016 and 2017, DFS received 30,285 calls in which 1,987 persons were injured and 277 lost their lives.