Collapsed Building Kills 4, Injures 12 In Yaounde
Saturday, December 21, 2019- Cameroon News Agency- The death toll has risen to 4 persons after a building under construction in Yaounde, collapsed on Friday, December 20, 2019. A total of 16 workers on the site were retrieved, 4 deaths and 12 injured, the Commander of the Military Engineering Unit, Colonel Jackson has said.
A rescue team comprising the Cameroon Red Cross, Military Fire Fighters, Gendarmes, Military Engineering Unit among others continued the search early Saturday. Even though the possibility of retrieving more corpses is visibly low, according to Col. Jackson.
It was at exactly 3: 12 PM on Friday, December 20, 2019, in the political capital Yaounde, that the building under construction collapsed, at a place called Shell-Nsimeyong.
Red Cross cameroon 
Col. Jackson 
Rescue mission continue
The building had already progressed at the level of 3rd floor. It collapsed from its main load-bearing pillars, causing a vertical and complete collapse, without damaging neighboring buildings. At the time of its collapse many people were present at the construction site.
Rescue soldiers arrived the scene at exactly 3;00pm, 18 minutes after receiving the first alert. Immediately, they installed a security perimeter and engaged in the first aid operations, before being joined by military engineers with multidimensional expertise.
Several patrols of the Gendarmerie and the Police assure at the moment the protection of the perimeter essential to the good conduct of the rescue operations. About 30 volunteer civilians spontaneously came to lend a helping hand to the sappers and experts in Military Engineering.
It is affirmed the workers on Monday morning discovered that several ground floor pillars presented cracks for some and slight inclinations for others.
Rescue operations continue throughout the day and night with bare hands, under the supervision of the Administrative Authority, to save some of the workers from the rubble. Poor construction with weak pillars are the primary causes according to experts.
The building belongs to the company Super Marche DOVV, CNA learned.
