Wall Collapses Into Room, Woman Escapes Injury
[Updated] At around 1.50am this morning [Nov 23] a Smiths parish resident got the shock of her life when the retaining wall of a neighbouring property collapsed – crashing right through her bedroom – leaving her feeling lucky to be alive.
She was asleep when the wall came crashing down and described the sound as being like a “freight train coming through the house.” The wall came right through her home’s wall and caused her bed’s headboard to cave in striking her in the head. She ended up with sand all through her hair and also received a small scrape.
Fortunately she managed to escape serious injury, which she noted saying she was very grateful for her life, especially during this Thanksgiving period. Despite being very shaken up by the incident, she was extremely gracious and stressed how thankful she was not to have sustained serious injury. Her family and friends made their way to her house after the incident to check on her and provide support.
The wall collapsed during the heavy rainpour we experienced early this morning. Another lady who lives nearby said she heard a massive crashing sound which she initially thought was an earthquake.
Inside the house there was obvious and extensive damage, while piles of block were strewn outside and two outside sheds had been crushed when the wall collapsed.
Update 12.51pm: Bermuda Fire & Rescue Service Divisional Officer Dana Lovell said they received a call 1.53am, and one unit with four firefighters responded. They discovered that a retaining wall from a private home had collapsed onto a neighboring house, destroying one side of a bedroom wall. Mr Lovell said they believe the inclement weather/heavy rains may have been a factor in the wall collapse.
Click to enlarge photos:
A retaining wall with no rod in it. Thats useful… Good thing no one got hurt!
Wow, terrifying, I hope the person involved is OK and this gets fixed asap
No rod? I think that is the least of the worries. Am I correct in my observation that it appears that the block used was cut in half to build the wall and was not even filled with concrete? Who built that thing?
You just sound dumb. Not all house walls are filled with concrete and the block was not cut in half that is just how it broke(use some common sense). And I was just pointing out that a retaining wall should have rod/rebar in it.
Why would a person sit there and cut block in half to build a wall? Your just being ridiculous!
looks like no “weep” holes either….common error in building retaining walls in bermuda….glad no one was hurt…but the cost to the owner of the collapsed wall or his insurance is going to be sobering.
Oh no glad she is ok.
Looks like a pretty old wall. Probably built under the UBP friends and family with NO Government Inspection.
Thank God there were NO injuries.
You hit the nail on the head!
lololololololololololololololololololol I’m so glad to hear that there weren’t any injuries, but the comment is toooooo funny. You just have the find the humour in that comment. lololol can’t stop laughing!!
Lol I think you may be right, I’m not sure when the building codes were updated but I’m sure if it was old enough not to require re-bar it probably would have been made from limestone block. I bet any money this lady will sleep with her bed in the middle of the room for the rest of her life, if she can sleep, glad she wasn’t hurt too bad.
Perhaps that is true becuse ever since the PLP have been in power under their friends and family plan all we do is take rod.
Damn PLP… All this electioneering is eroding the foundation of society.
Shut Up Clown
Good thing the bed is made for the picture lol. Glad nobody was injured!
What a stupid comment, at a time like this certain things are not important at all. Who cares if the bed was made or not. Thank God she is alive.
Iam impress that both wall didnt have re-bars!!!!!….what kind of construction are those wall??…..who did it?
Bloody hell , and here I was thinking that good fences(walls) makes good neighbors . Happy that she is O.k .
I am so glad the woman was not seriously hurt.
There is a God! Hope she can get the repairs done quickly.
Good luck!
If there are ANY Government Site Inspectors reading this article, have a real good look at the wall. I DON’T see any weep holes, and the hedges seem pretty close to edge, could their roots have contributed to this demise.
That was some very hard rain coming down around 1am, good nobody got hurt.
Normal house wall such as that are generaly not reinforced. However the retaining wall was definatly under-engineered and should not have collapsed like that.
That lady’s wall was made with cut block, not even whole blocks, no wonder it fell apart. Whoever built that was cutteing some serious corners………… let alone the retaining wall
That wall was an “Ace Boy Special” Yah bye I got an ace boy who can lick that up for you in a weekend! Don’t charge too much for it either. Glad nobody got hurt.
LMAO! How true!
According to the pic, the bedroom wall was made with whole blocks. The force of the rubble from the fallen wall pushed the bedroom wall in, thus breaking the inside plaster and block work. My heart goes out to the lady. It looks like recent heavy rains and the ever growing roots of the tree over stressed the long standing wall. It can happen.
I am not in the construction business, but am I the only one that has noticed the wall to the house does not have the block staggered. There is little to no strength in a wall built with the block directly on top of one another like that… I learnt that from playing lego as a child!
Just proves you gotta keep ya house clean cause ya mess could end up on Bernews. Lol.