Plus

Plus

The wall of doom
Danger still looms after family of three is buried under the rubble of a playground wall
By Renu Warnasuriya and Priyanwada Ranawaka
"The house, we can rebuild, but how do we rebuild our lives?" asks I.R. Adeline who lost her son, daughter-in-law and grandson, all in one horror-filled night.

S.K.D. Sisira Priyalal, 38, his wife Raju Margaret Mary, 34, and their 16-year-old son Dinesh Niroshan were asleep in their one-roomed home, adjoining the parapet wall of the Bandu Jeeva playground in Kirullapone. The playground stands on a higher level than the line of shanties. Along the slope is its rock wall with a wire mesh on top of it. Sisira's home built of planks was at the foot of the slope.

The heavy storm on Monday night brought down a section of the playground boundary wall on their home, burying the family under its rubble. The screams of the dying family were heard by their immediate neighbour K. Muthukumari, who along with her family members was also trapped for two days after their house too was badly damaged on that fateful night. Muthukumari said heaps of rubble and the collapsed roof of their neighbour prevented them from coming out to safety. In the Muthukumari family, fortunately, no one was hurt, though their house suffered extensive damage.

Making any rescue attempt difficult, if not dangerous, was an electricity post that had fallen on Sisira's house. "It was raining heavily and the fear of being electrocuted prevented people from rushing in to help," said Sisira's mother Adeline, who lives in the neighbourhood.

The neighbours informed the Kirullapone Police who got the Ceylon Electricity Board to disconnect the power supply. No sooner the power supply was disconnected, the residents helped by police moved into action. They removed the rubble with their bare hands and whatever tools at their disposal, only to recover the bodies of Mary and Niroshan. Sisira was alive. He even drank the water the rescuers gave him. But he had suffered a heavy blow to his chest and died on the way to the Kalubowila Hospital.

A big granite rock had fallen on young Niroshan's head while another had landed on his mother's stomach. "It took more than eight people to remove these pieces of wall," said Adeline. "We got the news around midnight," said Mary's mother Raju Rajamani, adding that the victims had visited her Narahenpita house that evening, a few hours before tragedy struck.

Sisira's uncle who also lived with them in the same house had not been there that night as he had left on a pilgrimage to Kataragama. "If he had been there I would have lost him as well," said his sister, Adeline.

Sisira and Mary had been living in this area for around 18 years. They had lived with Adeline until they moved to their new one-roomed rented house four months ago, knowing well the playground wall was a danger.

"The people who lived there before had made several complaints about the wall to the Colombo Municipal Council," a neighbour said. Sisira who worked as a security officer at the Immigration Department is the eldest of Adeline's three sons. His wife Mary is the fourth in a family of five children. She had found employment in West Asia a couple of times but could never stay away from her son for more than three months , Rajamani said.

Niroshan, a student of St. Mary's Colleged, Bambalapitiya, was studying for his O/L examination next year. "He loved art," says his grandmother explaining that Niroshan was very good with his hands and used to make various ornaments out of odds and ends.

Very close to his relations, Niroshan used to visit his aunt every week. "Every Friday he would come to my house and ask for all kinds of snacks," she said. Rajamani described him as a typical teenager who never wanted to eat rice. "He was an innocent boy and never got involved in fights. He minded his own business and only left the compound if his tennis ball went over the wall."

Many of the residents are bitter about the municipal authorities’ apathy. "We have brought this matter to the notice of the CMC officials several times. But they only did patch-up work," said N.A. Amalraj who warned that other parts of the wall also could collapse soon. "The other side of the wall which was slanting towards our houses is now tilting even more," he said.

CMC officials who visited the site after the tragedy had advised them to evacuate their homes, as the wall is still unsafe. "Where are we to go? We are poor people," said D.S. Kolambage. "The playground was built five years ago on a garbage dump. They brought soil and just flattened the ground and put up a parapet wall around it," she said.

Even after Monday's tragedy, more chunks of rock have broken off and fallen down the slope. A narrow lane runs between the wall and the shanty homes. If the remainder of the wall collapses it will bring down the electricity posts situated next to the wall. "If the rest falls onto our houses we will also be finished," said Amalraj fearfully. As the rains continue, their worries increase.

Back to Plus