Story By: Jonathan Macias, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
Video Credit:CEN
This is the moment a warehouse floor collapses under the feet of five employees sending them plummeting to the depths below.
The accident took place in a warehouse storing recycled material in the neighbourhood of Lovaina in the city centre of Medellin in the Colombian department of Antioquia.
In the video, five workers can be seen carrying bags and climbing a ladder to store them when the floor below them suddenly collapses.
The workers and all the bags around them are sent plummeting and one worker can then be seen walking into the debris to try to find his colleagues.
According to local media, three of the men were injured and one of them died in the accident, a fifth man was uninjured.
Camilo Zapata Wills, Director of the Administrative Department of Disaster Risk Management (DAGRD) explained that the accident happened on Wednesday shortly after noon.
Zapata Wills told local reporters: “An interior slab collapsed. There are three firefighters trucks with their respective crews helping in the accident.”
Diego Moreno, Deputy Director of Disaster Management at DAGRD said the warehouse had several levels and that recycled material was stored there.
Moreno said: “A part of the warehouse, the back part, did not have a solid structure like the rest of the construction and collapsed due to possible overweight.”
Octavio Aguirre, one of the injured employees, explained that he and three other coworkers were at the top finishing up unloading almost three tons of material.
Aguirre told local reporters: “The slab was wet and leaked water. It did not resist and it collapsed with everything on it, there was a machine that weighs about four or five tons, and there were another 30 or 40 tons of ground paste (polypropylene).”
Another employee identified as Giron added: “We were working for the day because we go wherever they call us. I live in the street.”
He also told local media that he suffered injuries to his head as all the cargo fell on his head.
The dead victim has not been identified in reports.
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