Update: News reports have revealed that the five Spanish Nationals of Gambian origin who were killed last Thursday in Birmingham when a one-and-a-half tonne wall collapsed on top of them were all husband and fathers.
A fundraising initiative has raised more than £20,000 (about R380 000) for the workers’ families. No new news has surfaced on the joint West Midlands Police and Health and Safety Executive investigation into the incident; however news sources speculate that it may take many months to piece together what happened. Source: Mirror, UK Original story
On 7 July 2016, a 15 foot wall collapsed killing three scrap metal recycling workers
The other victims were Alimamo Jammeh, Bangaly Dukureh, Mohammed Jagana and Ousman Jabbie.
Investigation update Detective Mark Payne of the West Midlands Police yesterday made the statement that an investigation had been launched at the site to determine whether any “negligence or malpractice” was to blame for the collapse. Soon after, Shredmet, the company involved in the tragedy, owned by Hawkswood, issued a statement saying, “At the present time it is not known why the wall collapsed as the wall had been in place for more than two years and had not been subject to any damage or was not subject to any incident that would have resulted in the collapse.” “The incident is being fully investigated by the West Midlands Police and The Health and Safety Executive, and the management of Shredmet Limited and its workforce are providing full cooperation with the investigation.” Past fire In 2011, the Netchells plant caught fire in an incident believed to be caused when petrol tanks became ignited during routine cutting work. At that time, more than 50 fire fighters were needed to quench the blaze which burnt over 100 tonnes of scrap metal covering more than 150 square feet. Source: Birmingham Mail
