RIGA: Latvian investigators tried yesterday to narrow down the cause of a Riga supermarket cave-in that killed at least 54 people, as rescuers combed the rubble for more victims.
Pending the official probe’s results, an independent foreign-based expert widely quoted by the media in the Baltic state said “design flaws” were to blame for Thursday’s collapse.
With investigators keeping mum about what they think the causes might be, speculation in the media has focused on whether a rooftop garden and playground put a strain on the structure.
President Andris Berzins demanded a swift and thorough investigation of what he said on Saturday was the “mass murder of defenceless people”.
As Latvian officials combed the site for forensic evidence for their own report to be used in potential criminal trials, structural engineer Toomas Kaljas, CEO and chief engineer at Rak Tek Solutions in Espoo, Finland, insisted structural flaws were to blame. In an independent report compiled from photographic evidence, Kaljas said: “It is obvious that the primary cause of collapse is the steel truss bolted tension connection. Steel truss, is made out of two pieces, which are assembled on site using bolted connections. The bottom chord tension connection is at least two times under-designed.”
“The quantity and sizes of bolts are not sufficient for a massive steel beam section,” his report states.
“It’s a design flaw that comes from ignorance,” Kaljas told AFP. “It was clear when I saw the first pictures. I immediately realised it is a truss connection problem (...) and when I saw the pictures of the third section collapsing yesterday it really proved the case.”
His comments were first widely quoted in the Latvian and Estonian media.
The search for more bodies at the site was delayed yesterday morning over safety concerns after a third section of roof crashed down late on Saturday threatening workers and inspectors.
Officials decided to relaunch the search yesterday afternoon using controlled demolitions to bring down dangling pieces of the roof.
Firefighter Stanisav Turoks, 30, survived the second collapse but sustained a spinal injury.
“We were getting a man out from under a cement bloc when the second cave-in happened. We were just about to get him out when it happened (...) then we couldn’t,” he told AFP in a Riga hospital.
“I managed to get out and tried to help my colleagues and then
I felt a sharp pain in my back,” he said.
Emergency medical services chief Armands Plorins said yesterday the chances of finding anyone alive were “practically speaking, zero.” AFP
