Almost a month after the first-floor ceiling of a Sliema building collapsed, killing a worker, the elderly couple who live next door have been told it is still too dangerous for them to return home. 

“I just want to go back,” said Antoinette Debono, 77, standing in front of the police tape cordoning off the home where she has lived with her husband for 53 years.

Their property in Ignatius Street is next to the building where the fatal accident happened on April 20.

At around 9.30am that morning, the ceiling of the building’s first floor collapsed, killing Albanian worker Bari Balla, a father of six. Another worker, a 31-year-old man, also from Albania, was injured. A magisterial inquiry is under way.

Antoinette, a retired teacher, was preparing food in her kitchen with her dog Gaia when she realised something was seriously wrong.

“I heard a big crashing noise. My dog came running to me. I heard the voice of a man calling a name. It was not a name that sounded familiar. Now I know it was Albanian. It was followed by words that sounded like they were meaning: ‘talk to me’. It’s reminiscent of the movies,” recalls Antoinette in vivid detail.

Works at the site, a 1920s, three-storey townhouse, were illegal. The developer and architect had obtained planning permission on March 26 to add a receded floor and extend existing ones but that permit stated that no works could begin until a 30-day appeal period had lapsed.

The site was being developed into a shared living space.

On the Wednesday before the accident, the project manager informed the neighbours they would hear noises because they would be testing the load-bearing capacity of the walls.

For the next few days, Antoinette heard drilling sounds – “as though someone was fixing frames to the walls around the house”.

‘Come, come, help, ambulance!’

After the collapse, she recalls walking out into the yard, near the kitchen, and shouting to see if anyone needed help. 

“I went upstairs onto a terrace that overlooks the other yard. I looked out and saw nothing. I started shouting again. A man opened the door to the yard. A dust cloud came out. He shouted: ‘come, come, help ambulance’,” she said.

Antoinette ran to the front of the house. The man, covered in dust, opened the front door and another cloud dust gushed out. Another man walked out of the building, dusted himself, got his haversack and ran away, she said.

After she called 112, neighbours and other people started gathering, including the owner of the grocery nearby, who went inside the dusty building.

“When he came out, he said: ‘He’s dead. There’s no way he’s still alive’,” Antoinette said.

The police, ambulance and civil protection arrived within minutes. The young man who was calling for help was given assistance and taken to hospital and the body of the dead worker was pulled out from under the rubble.

‘I want to go home – but I want to be safe’

Antoinette and her husband George have been out of their home ever since after being told it was too dangerous to

stay. They were told that the staircase of the damaged building was attached to the wall of her house. There was the risk that, if the stairs collapsed further, they would pull down her wall. Her house and the accident site have since been cordoned off.

The building on the other side of the site – a guest house – is also closed off.

Antoinette and her husband have been able to enter their house three times so far – to gather some belongings. Each time they need permission and have to be escorted by police. They keep being told that works will “soon” start to secure the structure.

“Each time I remember things I need, like the ironing board, the blood pressure machine and the glucose machine. Now I keep a list of what I need so I can get them the next time I go… I want to go home. But I want it to be safe. Why does it need to take so long to secure the structure? Our house risks getting damaged in the meantime,” she says.

Next week the insurance company will be inspecting her home for damages before works can start.