Miracle prevents fatalities at collapsed Ilford City Gates church construction site

 The potentially unstable crane deemed serious hazard!

 Fire engines and other rescue services on standby to save potential casualties.

 The mangled infrastructure illustrates the lucky escape.

 Rescue teams awaiting directions- limited information from thermal imaging delayed active response.

The residual infrastructure looks ready for another cave in.

It's a miracle that no-one was seriously hurt!

A five storey church infrastructure build collapsed at 16:30pm today, and miraculously killed no-one.  Around 20 construction workers were still on site and yet none of them suffered major injury.

Firemen and other rescue crew where unable to scour the site for any casualties due to the perceived danger of the site.  Around 30 fire, police and ambulance vehicles still waited along Clements Road, and Winston Way, seeking the go-ahead for a survey of the wrecked construct at around 7pm.

The reason for the collapse has not yet been established but this near miss posed a real threat to local people. Police and fire crew worked together in partnership setting up a safety cordon of around 500m diameter around the site, concerned that the large lifting crane could be unstable.

The building site belongs to City Gates Church a large charismatic Christian group, who intend to build a 5 storey complex, including a large 1000 seater auditorium to serve their larger than normal congregation.   Other rooms would include various meeting rooms and community projects.  The construction project was headed up by Ashe Construction.

Images from the scene of the collapse indicate how close, workers and the public, were to a potentialy fatal incident.

Thick steel girders have been twisted and bent out shape, the concrete floors have been deemed to dangerous for inspection- even obscuring any tangible thermal observation via helicopter.  Fortunately an Evening Standard reporter informed Wilson, that by 8pm it had been established that no serious harm had befallen anyone.  A passing women is said to have exhibited serious symptoms of shock.  Wilson Chowdhry said;

"Being a Christian I am compelled to believe that God had a hand in preventing any loss of life, simply because with the complete collapse of the structure, at a normal operational time, a more inimical catastrophe should have occurred."  


Read an update here:


http://www.ilfordrecorder.co.uk/news/news/ilford_city_gates_building_collapse_19_year_old_s_lucky_escape_from_parked_car_1_1194324