Four workers killed in roof collapse in Turkey’s west

BALIKESİR – Doğan News Agency

Four construction workers were killed on Oct. 14 when the roof of a hospital building belonging to a university being constructed in the Marmara province of Balıkesir collapsed.

A total of six construction workers became trapped under debris at around 2:30 p.m. on Oct. 14, as the roof mold of the Balıkesir University Faculty of Medicine’s additional building collapsed. 

Concrete was being poured inside the roof mold of the four-story, 534-square-meter-wide building when the mold failed under the weight and collapsed. 

Firefighters managed to initially remove four of the six workers from the debris after one hour’s work. 
One of the trapped workers, Mehmet Ali Hisar, had already died before he was recovered from the debris, while three others, Mehmet Uzunbaş, İsmail Adın and Ali Karaoğlan, were removed alive and immediately hospitalized at the same hospital they worked for. 

However Uzunbaş succumbed to his injuries at the hospital, while Adın and Karaoğlan were continuing to receive treatment. 

Rescue efforts to extract the other two workers, Ali Akbaş and Nasıf Yakıcı, from the debris continued for many hours with the efforts of the Balıkesir Fire Brigade and the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority’s (AFAD) provincial branch.

The dead bodies of Akbaş and Yakıcı were pulled out from the debris at around midnight on Oct. 14. 
Balıkesir Governor Mustafa Yaman and Balıkesir University Rector Prof. Kerim Özdemir were also at the scene to observe the rescue work.