Rescuers comb Latvia supermarket rubble for more victims

RIGA, Latvia – Latvian investigators tried Sunday, November 24, 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 (November 21) 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 Saturday, November 23, was the “mass murder of defenseless 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 for 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 Agence France-Presse. “It was clear when I saw the first pictures. I immediately realized 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 Sunday morning over safety concerns after a third section of roof crashed down late Saturday threatening workers and inspectors.

Officials decided to relaunch the search Sunday 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 Agence France-Presse in a Riga hospital.

“I managed to get out and tried to help my colleagues and then I felt sharp pain in my back,” he said.

Emergency medical services chief Armands Plorins said Sunday the chances of finding anyone alive were “practically speaking, zero.”

Police said Sunday that seven of 13 people who had earlier been reported missing remain unaccounted for.

In a rare piece of good news as memorial services took place across the country and police began releasing the names of the dead, it was also confirmed that no children were among the victims.

The list revealed the youngest victim to be Elga Gruzde, 25, who worked at state airline airBaltic.

Part of the roof at the two-year old Maxima supermarket crashed down during peak shopping hours on Thursday.

A second collapse killed three firefighters who were among rescue teams already inside the building.

The small Baltic nation of two million began a three-day mourning period on Saturday as it struggled to come to terms with its worst disaster since independence in 1991.

Latvians flocked to cemeteries Sunday to mark the annual All Souls Day by lighting candles at the graves of relatives while also mourning the victims of the supermarket collapse.

Flags across the country were flown with a black sash of mourning and three minutes of silence are planned for Monday. – Rappler.com