The incident occurred at Rugby, Warwickshire, on September 10, 2019. A building's wall suddenly gave way and failed into the street.
Fortunately, the family living in the house were away at the time of the failure. It was later revealed than another (smaller) section of the building collapsed some hours earlier and they decided to abandon the house.
2 bedrooms and the kitchen of the residence were affected and many of the family's belongings were strewn across the road. Authorities have placed the family in a hotel until further notice.
According to the neighbors, the sound of the collapsed was like a bomb exploding. "I just heard this almighty bang, like a bomb going off and could see dust rising into the air. It was pretty scary," Laura Evans, a local resident, stated.
The construction works were conducted to turn the nearby house into an apartment building. Workers were not affected by the failure and rushed to see if anyone was in danger. 20 minutes later, the local fire department, police and rescue services arrived at the site to take the necessary measures and secure the area.
Engineers are evaluating the building to derive the causes of the collapse. In any case, the obscure conditions under which the failure occurred makes difficult to assume those responsible. "It was a shocking experience and no one is accepting liability. Our landlord is confused what is covered by his building insurance and the contractor doesn’t want to accept liability," a family member stated.
The family is in desperate need of help and a friend created a fundraising website. "They (the family) are in temporary accommodation at the moment and they are only able to save the clothes on their backs. The children only have their uniforms and school bags with them. Imagine their shock coming home from school seeing their house in ruins," is mentioned in the site.
Sources: BBC Metro.co.uk Dailymail.co.uk
