Five family members perish as roof caves in
Despite warning, residents refuse to vacate old homes.
PESHAWAR:
Five people of a family died when the roof of their house caved in due to heavy rainfall on Tuesday.
Meraj Gul, a labourer, along with his wife and five children were living in a rented house on Sethi Street, one of the oldest streets in Peshawar. Gul, his wife and three children died in the roof collapse.
Two children that were critically injured were rushed to the Lady Reading Hospital where their condition is now stable, said hospital officials.
“He was unable to renovate his house because of financial hardships,” said Gul’s neighbour, while talking to The Express Tribune.
The civic body Peshawar had issued several warnings for residents to vacate old rusted houses in the walled city.
The street has 70 houses, some of them built during the Mughal era. Town-1 administration had declared 12 houses ‘extremely dangerous’ for living.
“We have issued notices to these residents to vacate the dangerous houses. However, they did not take our notices seriously and have now faced this gruesome incident,” the inspector of the town municipal administration told Express News.
Despite the warning, residents are reluctant to leave mainly due to skyrocketing rents in other localities.
In the walled city, many houses are in bad shape due to lack of maintenance. In addition, owners offer lower rents as compared to other furnished houses.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 5th, 2012.
Five people of a family died when the roof of their house caved in due to heavy rainfall on Tuesday.
Meraj Gul, a labourer, along with his wife and five children were living in a rented house on Sethi Street, one of the oldest streets in Peshawar. Gul, his wife and three children died in the roof collapse.
Two children that were critically injured were rushed to the Lady Reading Hospital where their condition is now stable, said hospital officials.
“He was unable to renovate his house because of financial hardships,” said Gul’s neighbour, while talking to The Express Tribune.
The civic body Peshawar had issued several warnings for residents to vacate old rusted houses in the walled city.
The street has 70 houses, some of them built during the Mughal era. Town-1 administration had declared 12 houses ‘extremely dangerous’ for living.
“We have issued notices to these residents to vacate the dangerous houses. However, they did not take our notices seriously and have now faced this gruesome incident,” the inspector of the town municipal administration told Express News.
Despite the warning, residents are reluctant to leave mainly due to skyrocketing rents in other localities.
In the walled city, many houses are in bad shape due to lack of maintenance. In addition, owners offer lower rents as compared to other furnished houses.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 5th, 2012.