Firefighters in a 15-hour race against time to find Jean Paul Sofia beneath the rubble of a collapsed site in Corradino were hampered by the imminent risk of further collapse, a public inquiry has heard.
Peter Paul Coleiro, director general of the Civil Protection Department, who headed the rescue operation, gave a step-by-step account of the delicate moves and pitfalls his men had to navigate through until the final minutes when they finally glimpsed “a leg and torso” buried beneath the rubble of the building’s lower storey.
Supporting his testimony with reference to five enlarged aerial photographs of the site, taken by drones, Coleiro traced the stages of the search and rescue operation that kicked off minutes after the collapse.
The alert did not reach the department through the 112 emergency number but from firefighters at the Corradino station some 200 metres away from the construction site, which had been planned to house a furniture factory. They had heard a loud noise signalling the collapse at 9.56am.
Within two minutes, those firefighters had put on their gear and equipment and were on site.
The dust had barely settled when they got there, catching sight of a man emerging from the rubble, unassisted.
By the time Coleiro himself joined his men, another worker had been pulled out of the freshly-laid concrete and lay trembling on a stretcher.
He tried to get some information about the number of workers on site at the time of the collapse by asking the contractor, but the man, perhaps because of the shock and even because of a language barrier, was soon marked as an unreliable source.
“Three in, two out. Four in, two out,” the man stuttered incoherently.
One of the rescued workers insisted that “there was another person beneath him”.
From ‘snatch rescue’ to ‘selective debris removal’
Microphones were placed at various points around the site as a delicate “selective debris removal” procedure took place.
A solitary van, parked nearby and unattended, drew the attention of the police and the rescuers.
Inside that vehicle, an ID card bearing the name of Jean Paul Sofia was the first clue to the identity of the victim suspected to still be trapped under the rubble.
Calls to Sofia’s mobile phone went unanswered.
Mobile location data helped verify that Sofia’s last mobile location.
The rescue dog sniffed at the van and headed to the site, but stepped onto a roof that seemed unsteady, looking back at its handler and was reluctant to go further inwards.
Firefighters were working in shifts and as the night fell and the site was lit up, the risky nature of the site became all too clear and other problems surfaced.
A double brick wall, leaning against a concrete pump, “fluttered open in a gust of wind… it was not at all bound together,” recalled Coleiro.
“I feared it would topple over my men especially once the scaffolding against which it was leaning was removed.”
One false step could bring the remaining structure toppling down.
Acting upon the technical advice of the department’s architect and that of a court expert, help was sought from a major construction operator who provided the necessary machinery and expertise to operate it.
They had been warned that one false step could bring the remaining structure toppling down, not only posing a danger to the rescuers but also reducing the chance of survival of the victim.
Sofia’s father was allowed on site because he wished to see what was going on.
Finally, 15 hours after the start, “part of a leg and torso” were seen as a lower roof was dismantled.
That was the “most dangerous spot”, explained Coleiro, his account bringing tears to Sofia’s mother’s eyes, who sat quietly through the sitting.
Two firefighters together with the architect went down to the victim who was soon certified dead.
Lessons to be learnt
Board chairman and former judge Joseph Zammit McKeon said: “Lessons to be learnt. This 15-hour lapse. I’m sure you did all your best. But could it have been shortened had other search equipment been available."
Coleiro explained that that day the department had deployed more than 30 officers and two containers of equipment worth millions of euros.
But what they faced was “not a house like in the case of Miriam Pace” but a factory, “a load-bearing structure” and its core was in imminent danger of further collapse.
In this case, unlike the case of Pace, the path taken by the victim was unknown and so rescuers were treading on the unknown.
‘With responsibility comes authority’
Malta Association of Professional Engineers president Arthur Ciantar's testimony focused on the role of a site technical officer.
Authorities appear to lack understanding in this regard, leading to confusion between the role of an engineer and that of an STO, explained Ciantar.
Only an engineer specialised in built environment would have the competence to act as STO.
Unfortunately, the association was never consulted when this concept was introduced into Maltese law.
Such a role placed responsibility for a particular project upon the professional involved and “with responsibility comes authority”.
‘No architect’s warrant suspended in 23 years over construction fatalities’
Advocacy and research activist and Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation COO Martina Urso presented a report drawn up by the foundation based on research intended to identify trends in construction collapses.
Between 2015 and 2022, there were 49 worker fatalities, with the greatest number of collapses recorded in 2019.
Thirty-four out of the 49 relative inquiries remain open. And over the past 23 years, no architects’ warrants were suspended or revoked.
It was difficult to get information about injuries because the National Statistics Office obtained data from the Social Services Department which, in turn, only documented injuries if the person made a claim for social benefits.
Lawyers Therese Comodini Cachia, Matthew Cutajar and Eve Borg Costanzi are representing the family. State Advocate Chris Soler and lawyer Anthony Borg are representing the state.