Trapped for hours; collapsed but survived in Melcom Disaster… the story of 20 years old Selina

Trapped for hours; collapsed but survived in Melcom Disaster… the story of 20 years old Selina

Selina Ghartey, (R) together with a 25 year old man who went into the rubble to rescue his loved ones

“We were at devotion and we heard the sound from one of the pillars. So we were about to run and all of a sudden the building broke and fell on us. Some died, some were able to survive but thank God I survived,” that is the story of 20 years old Selina Ghartey, a sales girl at Melcom, Achimota branch.

She had gone to what until Wednesday morning was her place of work, a cathedral of business to sell to shoppers as she had done the past two months but the story was different this time.

The four storey building caved in, in what has become the Melcom disaster.

Nine bodies have so far been retrieved from the rubble, dead. Nine more bodies have been found, trapped and dead in the rubble as rescue workers including eight Israeli soldiers try hard to rescue persons who by any stroke of miracle could still be trapped alive almost 35 hours after the disaster.

Over 70 victims have been rescued alive and Selina is one of them.

She told Joy News’ Awuni Manasseh on the hospital bed at Korle-bu that she was hit by a pillar. She fell and collapsed but regained consciousness several hours later only to realize she had been trapped.

“I thought I was dreaming but I realized it was real,” she said in a low, devastated voice.

She saw some of her colleagues who, just hours earlier were sharing a word of prayer together, lying motionless and possibly dead.

The last thing she saw before the incident was the shaking pillar.

Trapped for hours; collapsed but survived in Melcom Disaster… the story of 20 years old Selina

The cause of the accident has largely been blamed on negligence, with Nana Kwesi Boadu, the owner of the building being hunted by the police.

Other buildings owned by the same man have been taken over by the AMA with an interlocutory injunction placed on occupants of the property.

Workers of Fidelity Bank, Standard Charted who occupy this property located six meters away from collapsed building have been affected.

Earlier in the day, three persons connected with the disaster were invited and questioned by the Bureau of National Investigation.

The president has sworn to take action against persons whose negligence have led to this disaster.