How a Fridge Helped Two Eastleigh Building Collapse Survivors Stay Alive for 30 Hours

For more than 30 hours, Sultan had no idea whether he would ever see his wife again. When Zeynab Mohammad was finally pulled alive from the rubble of a collapsed building in Eastleigh, the Nairobi man could hardly contain his emotions.

His wife had been inside their ground-floor shop when an 18-storey building came crashing down on Friday, October 23. Sultan had left her behind to attend afternoon prayers at a nearby mosque, never imagining that he would return to find their business buried beneath tonnes of concrete.

The news of the collapse sent him rushing back to the scene.

But when he arrived, the building was gone. All that remained was a huge pile of rubble, with rescue teams and desperate families gathered around it.

Speaking to journalists, Sultan recalled how he searched for the place where their shop had stood.

He explained that their business was located near an underground entrance and that he knew the exact section of the building where his wife had been working.

With no sign of Zeynab, he eventually returned to the mosque to pray.

For hours, he waited, hoping that the woman he had left behind that afternoon would somehow make it out alive.

Zeynab was inside the shop when the building began collapsing.

She later explained that she initially thought the loud noises were coming from a disagreement nearby. She had no idea that the entire structure was about to come down.

Before she could react, the building collapsed around her.

In the chaos, she found herself trapped in a narrow space between two refrigerators. The small gap may have saved her life, protecting her from some of the falling debris.

But surviving the collapse was only the beginning of her ordeal.

For more than a day, she remained buried in darkness, surrounded by concrete and rubble. She could not tell what was happening outside or whether rescuers would ever reach her.

At some point, she turned to prayer, believing that her life was in God’s hands.

“I just prayed to God that if it was my time to go, then He should let me rest in peace,” she recalled.

Zeynab was not the only person fighting for survival beneath the collapsed building.

Victor Onyango, a tailor who operated a nearby shop, was also trapped under the debris.

Although they could not see each other, the two survivors managed to communicate by calling out across the rubble.

For more than 30 hours, their voices became a source of comfort as they encouraged each other not to give up.

Onyango said they kept reminding each other that God was with them.

At one point, he noticed a small opening that allowed some light to reach him. When rescuers eventually found him, he immediately told them that another person was still trapped nearby.

He also described the desperate struggle to find something to drink.

As the hours passed, thirst became unbearable. He even considered drinking his own urine before remembering that he had a refrigerator inside his shop.

He managed to reach a bottle of water and a soda through the debris. He drank the soda and poured some water over his head to cool himself.

He then encouraged Zeynab to check whether she could reach a refrigerator inside her own shop.

The long wait finally ended on Saturday evening when rescuers managed to pull Zeynab and Onyango out alive.

After spending more than a day trapped beneath the collapsed building, Zeynab was reportedly rescued without serious injuries.

For Sultan, seeing his wife alive was a moment he will probably never forget.

The man who had spent hours praying and waiting broke down in tears. Overwhelmed by the moment, he struggled to find the words to describe what he was feeling.

For him, the rescue was nothing short of a miracle.

But even as families celebrated the survival of Zeynab and Onyango, many others remained at the scene, hoping their loved ones would also be found alive.

The collapse left several people trapped beneath the debris, with rescue teams continuing their search.

The two survivors’ remarkable experience offered a glimmer of hope to the families waiting anxiously in Eastleigh.

After more than 30 hours in darkness, surrounded by rubble and uncertainty, Zeynab and Onyango had finally made it out alive.

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