Demolition disaster

Demolition work being carried out in Dhaka, Bangladesh, was reportedly the cause of the collapse of the internal floors of the 22 storey Rangs Bhaban building that killed three workers and injured at least 20 others on the 8th December.

According to news reports, workers were piling demolition debris up on individual floors that were at the same time being drilled and cracked for demolition. It is speculated that the 17th floor of the building became too weak to support the load being put on it and collapsed, causing the floors underneath to collapse down to the second floor level.

Demolition work on the building began in August, following a court order for the building to be reduced to just six floors high. Experts that month are reported as having warned that there was a lack of sufficient safety measures during the demolition work, as well as an absence of a demolition plan supervised by qualified engineers. During that month, the work claimed its first fatality, when a 20 year old labourer without any safety equipment fell to his death from the 12th floor.