By L.K. Hewlett
St. Kitts Reporter
The sudden collapse of a wall at Kassab Hardware Store on Liverpool Row caused much commotion downtown on Thursday morning.
After word quickly spread about the mishap at the well-known establishment, a large crowd gathered outside the store that sells Tupperware, tools, electrical supplies and other household equipment and paraphernalia.
The western wall of the store adjacent to the Social Security expansion project crumbled to the ground at about 11a.m, leaving a gaping hole in the side of the building.
The Observer spoke to one of the family members who owns and runs the establishment who said that luckily, no one was hurt and that they had notified the relevant authorities.
The woman was visibly traumatised as she told this newspaper that they were concentrating on securing the store and that police were helping to contain the area.
Members of the Police bicycle Patrol responded to the scene and secured the area from curious bystanders.
One man on the outside of the store said he was inside the building when the collapse occurred without warning. He admitted that the incident had scared him as he was not certain what was happening.
“I was inside Kassab buying a bath tub when I hear this rumbling and when I turn round I saw the whole side just fall down, without any warning. People were in there just going about their regular shopping. Everybody rush out because like me, I sure they thought the whole building was coming down,” claimed one man named Cliffy.
Unconfirmed reports at the scene spoke to persons seeing a large crack on the same side of the building the day before. The ground level of the hardware store is made from concrete while the top floor is mostly made of wood.
Persons quickly jumped to the conclusion that the collapsed wall was directly related to the major construction that was underway in the adjacent lot, although workers from the project said they “weren’t doing anything close to the wall” at the time it collapsed.
All attempts to contact the Director of Social Security Cephlin Lawrence to comment as to whether the agency’s construction played any role in the building’s collapse proved futile.
At the time of the incident, the level of structural damage could not be determined and doubt still remained regarding the stability of the rest of the antiquated structure. It was not reported if any merchandise was lost in the incident.
