94 dead and 150 others injured in Pétionville school collapse
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Location of Pétionville within HaitiThe Pétionville school collapse occurred on November 7, 2008, at College La Promesse Evangelique, a church-operated school in Haiti called "The Evangelic Promise," in Pétionville, a suburb of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, when the school collapsed at around 10:00 a.m. local time (15:00 GMT). About 700 students from kindergarten through high school attended the school, however it is unclear how many were in the three-story building when it collapsed. At least 93 people, mostly children, have been confirmed killed and the death toll is expected to rise as more students and teachers are still trapped in the rubble.Over 150 were also injured. At least 35 students, 13 girls and 22 boys, were rescued from the rubble alive on November 8. on CNN a rescue worker told that "Throughout history, there's been people found 48, 72 hours later -- still alive, in good shape.", "They could be injured or just trapped." (Michael Istvan of the U.S. Agency for International Development).
During the collapse, the first floor of the school buckled under, and the second and third floors of the building came down upon it. The collapse also destroyed several nearby homes. However, only the first and second floors were filled with students, and some students were in the playground area. The cause of the collapse remains officially unstated, but residents of the town have said they suspect poor-quality construction as a cause.
The school had previously experienced a partial collapse in 2000, but it was rebuilt. After the first collapse, neighbors living downhill from the school abandoned their property out of fear that the building would fall onto their homes. The owner of the church-run school attempted to buy these vacated properties. In addition, the third floor of the building was under construction at the time of the 2008 collapse. After the collapse, at least 200 people were seen at hospitals in and around Port-au-Prince. However, because of strikes at General Hospital and Hospital de la Paix, two hospitals in the town, Trinité Hospital and University of Haiti Hospital saw most of the injured.
College La Promesse school owner, Rev. Fortin Augustin, Protestant minister and preacher, was arrested on November 8, 2008. He was charged with involuntary manslaughter and brought to a Haiti police station, after he allegedly told Haiti President, Rene Preval, that "the church school had been built with hardly any structural steel or cement to hold its concrete blocks together; he constructed the building all by himself, saying he didn't need an engineer as he had good knowledge of construction."Haiti's neighbor, the Dominican Republic sent two helicopters to assist in evacuating the injured. United Nations peacekeepers, stationed in the country since the 2004 rebellion, are assisting in the rescue efforts, as are members of the aid group Doctors Without Borders and the International Red Cross. The U.S. Agency for International Development sent a disaster response team to the school, and will be providing more logistical and rescue equipment. This consists of some 38 Virginia search-and-rescue officials and 4 rescue dogs, (led by Capt. Michael Istvan, operations chief for the Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue team, flewn by Alexandre Deprez, acting director for the U.S. Agency for International Development in Haiti). Also, a team of 15 Martinique firefighters and doctors, led by Daniel Vigee, and groups from Medecins sans Frontieres and Haiti arrived to rescue the remaining trapped children.
Hilario Davide, Jr. reported that "Filipino Blue Berets were the first to arrive at the scene on November 7 and immediately went to action, using their bare hands to roll over concrete slabs and dig through the rubble in their bid to pull out both the living and the dead. 157 officers and enlisted personnel from the Philippine Army, Navy, and Air Force, as well as 13 other officers from the Philippine National Police, are serving with the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH). The Filipinos were instrumental in the recovery of 9 victims who survived the tragedy." The Filipino peacekeepers worked with blue helmets from Brazil, Chile, and Ecuador and Haiti police.
