Quake risks exposed
Albert Louis Edgar tried to escape through his bedroom door as a massive earthquake shook his historic homestead.
The 74-year-old was then struck by falling debris and crushed to death.
He was found by the shine of a torch, on his knees in the doorway, about five hours later.
Edgar died on November 14, 2016, due to injuries sustained when the Elms Homestead collapsed in the magnitude-7.8 Kaiko¯ ura earthquake.
Coroner Marcus Elliott’s findings, released yesterday, said the two-storey bay villa was constructed in the 1870s with unreinforced concrete.
The coroner said Edgar’s death highlighted the dangers associated with the collapse of old buildings in earthquakes.
Thirty-nine people were also killed during the February, 2011, earthquake in Christchurch due to unreinforced masonry collapses.
‘‘People who use and occupy buildings constructed of unreinforced masonry face the risk of injury or death in a large earthquake,’’ the coroner said.
He recommended owners of residential buildings with unreinforced masonry obtain a structural assessment of earthquake risk and strengthen the building where necessary.
The quake hits
Edgar lived at the homestead with wife Pam and mother Margaret. On the evening of November 13, Margaret Edgar went to bed about 7pm, while Albert and Pam Edgar continued watching TV until about 11.45pm. The quake struck at 12.02am. Pam Edgar later told police she and her husband were both in bed when the rolling started.
‘‘I jumped out of bed.
‘‘I wanted to check on my mother-in-law . . . As I got out of my bedroom I wanted to go left but I got thrown right, and thrown up against the wall so I didn’t get to check on her. Everything was falling around me . . . Once things started to settle I looked up and I could see a palm tree so I knew the top storey of the house had fallen . . . I could see the remains of the top storey on the bedroom area.’’
She got out of the house and called emergency services from a neighbouring property.
Firefighter Peter Ford arrived shortly after and heard Margaret Edgar calling out.
He got her out of the rubble and she was taken to Kaiko¯ura Hospital.
She died in April last year, aged 100, at the Kaiko¯ ura Hospital Rest Home.
A concrete digger was used to remove the rest of the rubble while others searched for Albert Edgar. The bedroom was cleared of debris to ground level but Ford could still not find him until he crouched down and shone his torch through the bedroom doorway. He saw Edgar on his knees, with a lot of rubble covering the top of his body.
The location of his body suggested he was struck by falling debris while trying to escape.
According to a Historic Places Registration Proposal from January 2007, the Elms Homestead was constructed with poured concrete using a mixture of river shingle and Portland cement. The building was rendered in cement plaster for aesthetic appearance and waterproofing, and the roof was corrugated iron.