Residents left homeless after wind tears roof off apartments
The scene at the Carrickmines Manor development in south Dublin after the roof was blown off a block of apartments
Thursday November 26 2009
FEROCIOUS gales tore the roof off a new apartment block yesterday, forcing 50 residents out of their homes.
Freak winds caused the roof of a penthouse in Carrickmines south Dublin, to come off.
The affected residents narrowly escaped injury in the incident but they will spend the coming nights in a hotel.
High winds swept through the building and prompted a mass evacuation of residents just before 9am.
The roof of 'The Crescent' block at Carrickmines Manor came undone, flipped backwards and crashed into a portacabin below.
Experts examined the damage at the scene. Three cranes moved on site to secure the two adjoining buildings amid fears that their roof tops were also unstable.
Residents from the affected block were taken to a nearby Bewley's hotel where it is expected half of them will stay for about nine days. The other half are expected to return to their homes by tomorrow.
The Carrickmines Manor estate is a new development of apartment blocks and houses which are partially occupied. Two-bedroom apartments there were valued at €470,000 each at the peak of the property boom. Last night, residents questioned how this could happen at a new apartment block.
Omar Khan, an accountant who works in the IFSC, said his wife Rabia and two-month-old son Abdul had been in their apartment on the third floor, just below the penthouse when the roof came loose.
"I have a wife and a two-month-old kid and they are absolutely shaken," he said.
The family have lived there since the end of 2007 when Mr Khan bought the apartment off plans.
"How can a two-year-old apartment block break up?" he asked, adding: "They (my family) are sitting in a shopping centre without any indication as to where they can go."
Damage
Residents, many in work when the accident happened, arrived throughout the morning to examine the damage to the property.
"Thankfully it went out the back and not the front when people were going out to work in the morning," Hazel Melbourne said.
Gardai, fire brigade and officials from Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council were at the scene, as well as representatives of the developer, Pierse, and agents for the management company Wyse.
"Going back to Hurricane Charlie we had situations like this before, so it is not common, but in very, very high winds you can have situations," Ben Gough, managing director of Wyse, said from the scene.
Last night, the company said the building was not designed to cope with the high winds which were witnessed.
"You can take it that the roof wasn't designed to withstand these winds because if it was, it would have withstood them. But it didn't," chairman Joe Wyse said.
"I think that kind of wind was not expected. There were very strong winds."
Mr Wyse said insurance would pay for residents to stay in hotels. He expects that all damage will also be paid for "provided there wasn't a latent defect in the building".
Builders Pierse referred all questions to the management agent.
Fine Gael TD Olivia Mitchell said there should be a health and safety review on all high-rise buildings in elevated areas.
Meanwhile, there was some early traffic disruption in Dublin city after fears that part of a roof had been blown off a building in Parnell Square.
Gardai and fire brigade personnel were sent to the scene at the corner of Granby Road and Parnell Square West.
However, following an examination it was established that the alert had been caused by some plaster and render falling off a roof on a building.
- Shane Hickey
Irish Independent
