Builders evacuated as roof collapses

10:20am Monday 10th November 2008

A TANGLE of twisted, tortured metal, bricks and concrete is all that is left of a pair of luxury apartments under construction at the Iridium development in Mudeford after the roof fell in shortly after lunchtime on Saturday.

The four-storey homes are at the eastern end of a multi-million-pound horseshoe-shaped block of 10 being built in the grounds of Mudeford’s up-market Christchurch Harbour Hotel, formerly the Avonmouth Hotel, and home of celebrity chef Gary Rhodes’ Rhodes South Restaurant.

A team of building sub-contractors was in the building at the time.

However, all escaped without injury when the roof began to give way, collapsing into the lower floors and taking the scaffolding with it at about 2.20pm.

Fire officers and police attended the incident and the Health & Safety Executive has been informed and is expected to carry out an investigation into the cause.

Near neighbour Kit Ring, his wife Lorraine and their family were at home when the building collapsed and saw the immediate aftermath.

“The engineers on the site had turned up early Saturday morning, which is unusual, because apparently they knew there was a potential problem and were there to do some remedial work,” said Mr Ring.

He said there were five or six men on site at the time.

“We are sincerely glad that no-one was hurt,” said Mr Ring, who had objected to the plans for the development.

Another Mudeford resident, Graham Rogers, said workers were taken off site on Friday after cracks appeared in the end wall and a balcony listed 30 degrees.

Midas Group had been building there for over a year but work had come to a halt because the special glass needed had not yet arrived.

A Midas spokesman said: “We had a controlled evacuation of the building when we were aware of movement at roof level.

“There were five people there, they were all subcontractors, not Midas staff.”

Scaffolders were called out to shore up the wall late on Saturday morning but it collapsed shortly afterwards.

A 100-metre stretch of road in Mudeford has been closed, from Mude Gardens to Farm Lane.

A statement from the building contractors said: "Midas Group's first and highest priority regarding the Iridium development in Christchurch is health and safety for the local community.

“As main contractors on the site in Mudeford, Midas Group has stopped all work in the local area and is investigating the cause of the single house that has collapsed.

“The adjacent road has been closed as a precautionary measure and Midas Group is eliminating any possible further problems on the site.

“The debris will be cleared from the affected area as soon as possible. The site is expected to reopen on Tuesday, November 11.

“Midas Group takes health and safety on all its sites very seriously and has called in independent investigators to look into the cause.”

Meanwhile, Bournemouth-based A1 Demolition Contractors were making the site safe on Sunday afternoon. A spokesman for the company said he was not in a position to comment.

“No comment,” was also forthcoming from the hotel.