The Savar Building Collapse Tragedy

[Gladiators]

LATEST: Media reports now saying death toll stands at 258

-Fire Services
-Police
-RAB
-Army
-BGB
-Red Crescent
-Scouts
-Volunteers

all involved in the rescue operation

Death toll crosses 100

At least 107 people were killed and over 600 injured in Savar on the outskirts of the capital Wednesday morning when a nine-storied building housing four garment factories collapsed.

With few hundred more believed to be trapped inside, rescuers fear the death toll may rise significantly.

http://www.thedailystar.net/beta2/ne...of-casualties/

8 story commercial building - Rana Plaza(owned by Jubo League high up - Sohel Rana) - near Savar bus stand completely collapsed this morning. Building was closed by the authorities yesterday but owners ignored their directive and thus full of garments workers from a couple of garments. 15-20 dead so far, 100 injured, but also up to a hundred still trapped inside.

Army called in to help with the rescue work - BNP has been kind enough to call a press conference and announce a relaxing of the hartal in Savar.

UPDATE: Cracks appeared yesterday and building was closed down by the police and authorities indefinitely yesterday - Architects & Engineers from BUET were scheduled to inspect the building today. But the garments owners in collusion with the building owner forced workers to go to work this morning anyways.

Workers say they were forced to work this morning - http://www.thedailystar.net/beta2/ne...orced-to-work/

BNP withdraws hartal in Dhaka, effectively immediately.

Media are now showing interviews with survivors and they are saying, the authorities told the building owner and business owners not to open the building for business until further notice. But the garments owners threatened the workers with expulsion, if they didn't go to work.

Local BRAC bank staff now being interviewed: He mentioned they were told by bank management to empty out their desks and offices. So, they didn't come to work and suffered no casualties.

[ReZ_1]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22275597
http://www.thedailystar.net/beta2/ne...of-casualties/
http://www.prothom-alo.com/detail/da...24/news/347339
Some updated news about the casualties.
"- O Allah, forgive our sins and have mercy on us ! Help us through worst times, you are the ONE the only one to guide us to right path and save us from disasters.."

[ReZ_1]

This is what....

Turned into this

[Gladiators]

Just about all local media now reporting death toll at 20

[Blah]

This is very close to our savar factory. We pass through this area all time. One thing I noticed in this part of savaar, is that a lot of buildings and offices are being developed in a very short time, esp in the last couple of years.

- prices of land went up like crazy, in a very very short period.
- Every jodu, modu, kodu is opening up a "shopping plaza"
- Some of the building in that area looks like they have been developed by "para civil engineers".
- Traffic going back to dhaka at night is currently averages about 2-3 hours sitting idle before the bridge.

civil constructions are dodgy business in bangladesh. From adulterated cement, dodgy soil testing, not having proper permits to cutting cost in piling, not using enough or proper materials. Rods are being made of scrap materials, but being passed as 60 grade; they will often crack/snap on little pressure. In bangladesh everyone is a civil engineer and has an opinion or what's the proper way to do thing.

Sometimes, I get shivers thinking what will happen in the event of a major earthquake. It will be slaughter...

[Jadukor]

I fear the death toll will be much much worse

There should be a limit to negligence. These are human lives we are talking about! In any civilized country the people who were involved with the construction, inspection and letting workers work knowing the building was unsafe would have been put on trial. I doubt it would be the case in Bangladesh. What happened to the garments owner for the fire? People can pay their way out of anything. The only sufferers are the poor people willing to work under extreme conditions

[Gladiators]

Originally Posted by Blah
civil constructions are dodgy business in bangladesh. From adulterated cement, dodgy soil testing, not having proper permits to cutting cost in piling, not using enough or proper materials. Rods are being made of scrap materials, but being passed as 60 grade; they will often crack/snap on little pressure.

Soil testing - lol. doba/nala bhorat kore, 10-12 story building tule felche.

[Blah]

Originally Posted by Gladiators
Soil testing - lol. doba/nala bhorat kore, 10-12 story building tule felche.

True, but doba nala is not a problem. Doba nalateo 100 tala building kora jae. The thing is when you do proper soil testing you know what kind of ground work needs to be done.

[Gladiators]

Originally Posted by Blah
True, but doba nala is not a problem. Doba nalateo 100 tala building kora jae. The thing is when you do proper soil testing you know what kind of ground work needs to be done.

That's what I meant - jeno teno 'testing' - proper steps not taken to compensate for the particulars of the site, and then building haphazardly.

Death Toll according to media
Independent TV - 30
NTV - 32
Channel 24 - 37
Others - 20-22

It's clear the Hartal has saved hundreds if not thousands from death(5-6000) ppl normally work in the building.

[ReZ_1]

Originally Posted by Gladiators

It's clear the Hartal has saved hundreds if not thousands from death(5-6000) ppl normally work in the building.

INDEED. the oppositions are now the heroes for saving thousands

[Gladiators]

Originally Posted by ReZ_1
INDEED. the oppositions are now the heroes for saving thousands

Yeah ok, no need to go overboard - even a broken clock is right twice a day! The real heroes are out there working their butts off to try to save lives.

I received a text from my university asking students who are eligible to donate blood - there is going to be a massive shortage

[Gladiators]

Shomoy TV: 50 dead, 500 injured(quoting army sources) - other stations are still hovering around the 30-40 figure.

[Rabz]

Nothing will happen.
The PM and LOP will express their grief.
The new President will express his grief.
Media will try to come up with couple of stories.
Relatives of the dead will be paid TK 10,000 each (only first 100 will receive as they will be on tv). The rest money will then by distributed amongst local leaders of the ruling party.
We will give some big worded status.
I will write this here on BC.

3 days later, we will move on.

[Gladiators]

Originally Posted by Rabz
Nothing will happen.

3 days later, we will move on.

Etai toh human nature - everyone moves on, especially in this country, but while it's happening, it is still tragic

[Gladiators]

Health Secretary confirms - 76 dead

Wednesday, April 24, 2013
BUILDING COLLAPSES IN SAVAR
70 dead, over 600 hurt
Several hundred trapped, casualty set to rise
Star Online Report

At least 70 people were killed and over 600 injured in Savar on the outskirts of the capital Wednesday morning when an eight-storied building housing four garment factories collapsed, Health Minister AFM Ruhal Haque said.

With few hundred more believed to be trapped inside, rescuers fear the death toll may rise significantly.
http://www.thedailystar.net/beta2/ne...of-casualties/

[Maysun]

This is sad. If you don't enforce strict laws and regulations regarding quality and safety, such incidents will take place.

Can we please edit the thread title since the correct number is not yet known?

[Gladiators]

Couple of minor areas of respite

-Medical college so close to the incident zone, so a lot of doctors in the immediate area
-as mentioned before, hartal meant the number of ppl in the building wasn't at optimum
-hartal also ensured traffic on the roads was very light, so emergency services could get to the stricken in minutes

But none of that is going to prevent this easily crossing triple figures.

This is already much worse than the Spectrum Garments collapse in 2005 when 64 people died.

@maysun - it won't let me update the thread title

[Gladiators]

BNP withdraws hartal in Dhaka, effectively immediately.

Media are now showing interviews with survivors and they are saying, the authorities told the building owner and business owners not to open the building for business until further notice. But the garments owners threatened the workers with expulsion, if they didn't go to work.

Local BRAC bank staff now being interviewed: He mentioned they were told by bank management to empty out their desks and offices. So, they didn't come to work and suffered no casualties.

[Gladiators]

Shomoy TV: death toll at 85

[Nadim]

Oh allah. Pls have mercy on Bangladesh!!!

Posted via BC Mobile Edition

[Zunaid]

Three updates from my brother in law who is right there in the thick of things. Knowing him - he is helping.

Savar tragedy: At this moment the death toll is 32. With 4000 working at the time of the disaster the death toll will be much much higher most probably in the thousands. At this moment we are using ropes tied together to rescue workers and ntv is reporting about hartal. This is one of the biggest tragedy of our nation and the state needs to move with what ever we got. God help us all.

And

Nine floors stacked over one another with people under the rubble. It is imperative that we move heavy equipment on site to save those who can be saved. As for those who are being rescued needs to be transferred to Dhaka as local facilities are already over whelmed and some critically injured are dying because of capacity issue. We need to setup blood donation camps in Dhaka and Savaar and above all need disaster management coordination.

And most recent:

It is soon going to be dark. We need to get proper lighting to help the rescue activity continue during the night time.

[ReZ_1]

We need lots of blood, and the local people who thinks they have nothing to do except watching the news in tv should at least donate one unit of their blood.

[Maysun]

BBC - In pictures: Bangladesh Dhaka building collapse

The pics are so shocking.

[Sun_]

It is almost impossible to watch those upsetting scenarios on tv, the images are so shocking….god. That b###### garment owner and the building owner both of them should be hanged till death………

[Rubu]

It's a damn shame really. The same thing will happen, will collapse or catch on fire. There will be a bit of news coverage and then back to same old practice. Something needs to change, but nothing will.