Deaths after Auckland house collapse

Two people are dead after a house being relocated at a South Auckland marae collapsed.

Police have confirmed that along with the two dead, two more people have been taken to Middlemore Hospital, one in a serious condition and the other moderate. Another two workers are now confirmed as having escaped injury.

Inspector Alan Shearer said the accident happened when a digger excavating at the site on Finlayson Avenue slid on a bank, flipped and crashed into the house.

This pushed the house off its foundation, bringing it thundering down on workmen beneath it.

Police Sergeant Steve Bass said there were seven or eight workmen under the house putting the piles into the ground when the collapse happened.

The two dead are still trapped, crushed beneath the collapsed house and police and considering how to move them.

Police have also swept the house with a dog to ensure no one else remained trapped amidst the ruined house.

Ambulance and Fire Service staff surrounded the property and tearful people from the marae were standing numbed. One one young woman was being held back, screaming that her father was in the house.

The marae is understood to have been building a community centre and the single story weatherboard house being relocated to the marae was intended to be a health centre.

Neighbour Naomi Finau said the house arrived at the site shortly after 5am yesterday in two pieces and was then put together during the day.

It was being positioned into a cut away section of a bank. Neighbour Tiffany Pedersen said that, about 12.30pm today, a digger slipped off the bank and into the building, causing the house, which was still jacked up on wooden piles, to crack and collapse.

She described hearing a "big ppssshh" sound and she watched horrified as the digger slid into the building, sending it crumbling.

She realized people had been working on the building underneath it.

"I heard screaming, ladders falling and wood cracking. Most of the building slid down the bank. Everyone started rushing around."

Two young children who live opposite Manurewa Marae and were home sick from school said they also heard a loud crack.

Porter Hire Manukau branch manager Victor Knight, who had rented a digger for the relocation operation, said about the digger split that: "It's very wet down there."

The house has split lengthwise along a roof beam.

It was planned for workmen to consolidate the foundations, which is why workmen were under the house.

Ms Pedersen saw one man taken out from below the building, covered in blood and not moving.

Mr Shearer said the driver of the digger was speaking to police at the Manukau polic station and the Department of Labour were investigating.

Two separate contracting companies were working at the site when the accident happened.

Manurewa Marae chairman Eru Thompson is in Wellington and is now desperate to get back to Manurewa to be with his Whanau. Counties Manukau District Health Board gave a contract to the marae to build a Whare Oranga Clinic and deliver health services for the benefit of the local community.

The whanau-focused centre was meant to provide alternative healing, traditional Maori Rongoa/medicines, mainstream health services and social services such as counselling and budgeting.

The Whare Oranga Clinic was due to be completed in three months.

Manukau Mayor Len Brown has said he is "deeply distressed" at the tragedy.

"This is a tragic accident ... our thoughts are with the families and friends of those who have been affected by this sad event," says Mr Brown.

"Manukau City Council has a close relationship with Manurewa Marae and I am offering my personal condolences to the Marae and to any contractors who may be on site."

By coincidence, Manurewa Marae is one of the places Gerard Otimi held his immigration meetings where he allegedly sold visas to mainly Pacific Island overstayers.

 

- © Fairfax NZ News