News

June 9, 2009

One dead, others injured as hotel collapsed

By Gbenga Olarinoye
One person was feared dead while several others were seriously injured yesterday when an hotel located in Osogbo under construction suddendly collapsed while workers were on the site.

The Hotel, Hilton Hotel located directly opposite Yidi Praying ground on the ever busy Ofatedo road was said to have suddendly caved in with the workers on the site trapped.

It took the combined efforts of men of the State Fire Service, the State Emergency Management Agency and sympathisers more than forty minutes before those that were trapped could be removed from the debris of the collapsed building.

One of the neighbours of the hotel who took part in the rescue operation told our correspondent that the workers were working on the second phase of the hotel when they suddenly heard a loud bang.

His words: “The workers working on the site resumed work this morning (yesterday) and things were going on smoothly until arouund 11.00a.m when we heard a loud bang and by the time we came out we discovered that he whole building under construction had been in a wreckage.”

“Myself and others who are the first callers at the scene of the incidence tried to rescue those who were trapped in the collapsed building while we equally reached out to the fire service men and the State Emergency Management Agency,” he added.

It was also gathered that one lifeless body which was removed from the debris of the collapsed building and others who received various degrees of injuries were taken to Ladoke Akintola University Teaching Hospital (LAUTECH), Osogbo.

Efforts by our correspondent to get official reaction for the men of the state fire service proved abortive as the senior officer in charge refused to talk to the press.