George construction tragedy: Dad spoke to son, buried under the rubble, before his phone died
|Published
* This story has been updated
Cape Town - The father of one of the men who is buried beneath the rubble of a George building that collapsed on Monday, spoke to his son before his cellphone battery died.
Seventy-five construction workers were on the site when the building caved in.
They are believed to have been working in the underground parking on, the first, second and third floors.
George Municipality has confirmed that as of 9am today, Tuesday, May 7, 26 people had been removed from the rubble and five of them had been declared dead. Forty-nine others are unaccounted for.
A female worker is the latest person to have been removed from the rubble. She is believed to have sustained injuries to her limbs.
The other injuries reported were 10 code red, three yellow and seven green.
Deon Safers, 62, from Mossel Bay said he had communicated to his son, Denvil Safers, 29, for several hours while he was trapped in the debris.
Safers said, his son, who is the father of a 2-year-old boy, told him that he had been working in room number seven when the building collapsed.
“I called him every 40 minutes because he was trying to save the battery.
“He said he is in a dark place and his legs are stuck and that he can't move them,” Safers said.
Denvil, an electrician by trade, and three of his colleagues were in the building.
A heartbroken Safers has been keeping vigil at the site for the past 13 hours, hoping his son is found alive.
“When I heard about the building, I told my wife that our son works in George.
“I told her to check her phone. This is when his boss said we should come immediately to George,” he said.
“I haven't eaten or slept yet. I'm just waiting for updates and feedback.”
Safers on Tuesday evening said his latest communication from his son was after 3:30pm, when he said his phone is on 9% battery life, he can hear the people at the top, he is in a dark place and can't feel his legs.
The multi-storey construction site in Victoria Street mysteriously collapsed just after 2pm on Monday.
Rescue personnel, among them services from the City of Cape Town, Breede Vallei and Worcester, worked through the night to find those who remained trapped.
Three rescue teams are each working on a different part of the site.
Speaking to the media on Tuesday, Colin Deiner, the chief director of Western Cape Provincial Disaster Services, described the operation as tough.
He said the teams were in the process of rescuing 12 workers with whom they were in contact.
“There are four people in the basement. We have been speaking to them and they have been reacting to us but we need to break through four floors to get to them,” he said.
“We have had a guy that spoke to us on a cellphone and we have had the cellphone to save battery time, but that is extremely unstable.
“It is a very tough operation, there is a lot of concrete. We still think it will take quite a while; there are 49 people unaccounted for.”
Drones have been sent in, in order to get an aerial view of the site.
On-site, Deiner couldn't confirm the cause of the devastation or whether the contractor was one of the people missing.
On the outer perimeter, families of those trapped in the rubble were in agony, waiting for news.
Safers said a rumour doing the rounds was that the building’s support had been removed on Saturday.
“My son was working on Saturday and people allegedly started to remove the support too early.”
Victoria Street remains closed for access at the York Street intersection.
Municipal Manager Dr Michelle Michele Gratz expressed her appreciation for the organisations and individuals who had sprung into action to assist in the rescue efforts.
She said: “We thank everyone who has volunteered their time or provided sustenance to the rescue personnel. We continue to keep the families, friends and colleagues of those involved in this tragedy in our thoughts and prayers.”
The municipality is also urging anyone who wishes to provide drinking water, Lucozade, wine gums, or any food for the emergency services while they are on-site.
This can be delivered the tent site via Ivy Street at 79 Victoria St, Delplan Consulting, which is being manned by Gift of the Givers and Herman Pienaar of LoveGeorge.