Scaffolding collapsed in Hamburg: 4 workers dead

Scaffolding collapsed in an elevator shaft, taking five construction workers with it. Only one could be saved. A fire department spokesman said another death was discovered in the afternoon while the scaffolding poles were being removed. Nobody will be missed anymore.

Initially, three dead and one construction worker with life-threatening injuries were found. According to previous findings, the scaffolding erected in an elevator shaft collapsed on the eighth floor in the morning for reasons that are still unclear and rushed into the depths. The rubble then piled up from the basement to the second floor.

“Like a giant Mikado”

According to the fire department, the accident scene looked like a giant Mikado. The scaffolding poles were jammed all over the place in the shaft and had to be secured and recovered individually – which is why the fire department initially couldn’t get to the victims for hours. By early afternoon only two bodies had been recovered.

A total of around 150 rescue workers were on duty, including height rescuers and a technical platoon from the volunteer fire department. According to information, around 700 people were working on the construction site at the time of the accident. The construction site was closed after the accident.

Emergency pastor called in

Emergency pastors were called in to look after the emergency services and eyewitnesses. A crisis intervention team was also deployed. Interior Senator Andy Grote (SPD) expressed his condolences to the victims’ families. “My condolences and sincere condolences go out to all the relatives of the victims,” he wrote on the X platform (formerly Twitter).

The Überseequartier is part of the Hafencity, which is considered Europe’s largest inner-city urban development project. A large shopping center with many shops, restaurants, entertainment, offices, a cruise terminal, hotels and more than 1,000 apartments will be built on the 14 hectare site on the Elbe. The northern part has been completed since 2019, and work is ongoing in the southern part.

There have been several serious accidents on the Hafencity construction sites. Only on September 2nd, four workers were injured, some of them life-threatening, in a similar accident at a construction site on Hamburg’s Elbe bridges – not far from Hafencity. A scaffolding collapsed and dragged the men down about five meters, a police spokesman said. Three construction workers aged 27, 35 and 53 were seriously injured. A 21-year-old suffered life-threatening injuries. Since the tide was low at the time of the accident and there was no water in the river, the construction workers fell on the rocky river bed.

Not the first incident

Last June 9th, several gas bottles exploded in a fire at another construction site in Überseequartier. A large cloud of smoke drifted from the ten-story shell building towards the city center. According to the police, the fire broke out on the roof of the planned shopping center – probably while welding a roofing felt. A crane operator was slightly injured while trying to put out the fire.

On April 6, 2020, two workers were seriously injured by falling components at a construction site on Zweibrückenstrasse in Hafencity. A package of 20 to 30 formwork boards that was being moved by a crane was torn off the hook, a fire department spokesman said.

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