Building collapse haunts residents four years later

Residents at Lot 7 Wildman Street in central Kingston cannot forget the cracking sound and the mounds of dust that erupted as their two-storey, nine-bedroom house tumbled to the ground four years ago.

The matriarch of the family that occupies the premises, 84-year-old Jane Burrell, said she was lying in bed the day the incident occurred.

“When mi get up, the whole of the place tear down,” she told The Gleaner on Monday. “The house just get old and give way.”

One of her daughters likened the horrific scene to the September 11 attacks when two airplanes crashed into the World Trade Center in the United States, causing mass destruction. She said there had been no premonition of the tragedy that unfolded that morning in 2017.

“When it come, it was like a ball of fire, but it was a ball of dust,” Burrell recounted.

Apart from the nine bedrooms, there was a bar to the front of the property that was also destroyed. Fortunately, the family had started to build a concrete structure at the back of the property. With help from several persons, they have since completed two rooms and hope to complete a two-bedroom structure upstairs.

Some months after, their neighbour experienced a similar fate as their house also crumbled to the ground. Many of the occupants in that house have since relocated, but Burrell has no plans to go anywhere, although someone has offered to purchase the property.

Scrutiny of building oversight and maintenance has heightened globally following last Thursday’s collapse of the Champlain Towers South condo building in Surfside, Florida, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava has announced an audit of residential properties five storeys or higher, and 40 years or older. At least nine people were killed and more than 150 are still unaccounted for after 55 of the 136 units on the building crashed to the ground.

Few inspectors

Kingston’s own crisis of confidence is exacerbated by the fact that there are only six building inspectors overseeing construction in the city – one-third the optimal capacity.

Like Burrell and her family, many Jamaicans have been living precariously as they go to bed each night in unsafe buildings.

Hopeton Harris has been living in a dilapidated two-storey board structure in Denham Town, Kingston, since 1990. He and his 20-year-old son occupy a one-bedroom section downstairs and share a bathroom and kitchen with several other residents.

“The building can collapse at any time,” said Harris, who operates a handcart.

“I see the building a take time a decay, so I’m worried.”

His neighbour, Madge Mattis, has been living at that location for more than 35 years. She and her two great-grandchildren and two grandchildren occupy a one-bedroom which, she said, her daughter has “fixed up” to take shame out of her eye.

“Who live upstairs, mi always more concerned about those people because mi a say if storm fi come and come the real way, when the upstairs drop down, it a guh drop down on who is downstairs,” she said.

Several of the properties near her are occupied by multiple generations as the buildings keep on expanding as the family grows.

One 22-year-old resident, who lives in a two-storey property down the road from Mattis, said her grandfather first occupied the house and then her father. She was living in a one-bedroom at the back that is badly in need of repair, but she has since relocated to the front where an aunt, uncle, and cousins live.

Just seeing the stairs that take her from her bedroom where her uncle and cousins sleep give her anxiety attacks.

“I had a dream with me dropping through the stairs,” she said.

“If I want something, I just call from downstairs, ‘cause I am really not going upstairs. I am scared,” she confessed.

Her fears are justified as her uncle and a cousin have fallen through the stairs on separate occasions.

She also has to contend with the destruction of her furniture whenever it rains heavily.

“I’m always talking about relocating, but I can’t reach that right now,” she said.

As the thrust to redevelop downtown Kingston intensifies, persons like Burrell are holding on to their property. The Government has stated that addressing the housing stock in downtown Kingston will form part of the upcoming round of programmed developments.

nadine.wilson@gleanerjm.com