It was November 2018 when I visited the Latvian capital
Riga, it was the 100
th anniversary of their
Independence and
celebrations were in the air for the next few days, but while I was here I had
one place on my mind to visit and research, the site of a disaster that shook
the city just a few years before.
It was the early evening of 21st November 2013
and over 100 shoppers were in the Maxima supermarket in Riga’s Zolitude district when a fire alarm
went off. It was quickly established that it was a false alarm caused by
maintenance work going on, but soon after a huge part of the building collapsed
in on itself over the checkouts and buried dozens of people under rubble.
Emergency services were called and a huge rescue operation
was launched, fire teams dug away at the rubble to reach survivors but more was
to come when a further part of the roof fell onto the rescue teams, crushing
more and leaving further people trapped. By now it was realised that this was a
huge emergency that could change at any time and so firefighters were allowed
only half an hour on site per person before being relieved.
Out in the car park soldiers started setting up tents for
the rescue workers and for dealing with survivors. But as time went on and
survivors were getting less and less, periods of absolute silence were called
for in order to listen for signs of life. Mobile phones were ringing within the
collapsed building, most likely from worried relatives and people who had not
been heard from for several hours.
The digging went on into the night and well into the next
few days, during this time a third collapse happened but this time everyone was
out of the way in time. In the end it was found that a total of 54 people had
been killed, three of them firefighters during the second collapse. The shock
of the disaster was felt throughout
Riga
and the mayor ordered immediate inspections of all buildings that were worked
on by the same company as this supermarket.
In the end the collapse was blamed on structural errors in
the building and one civil engineer was jailed for six year. The building
itself was demolished within days and the site cleared.
It was just a few days away from the 5th
anniversary of the disaster that I took a taxi over to the site, not sure what
to expect or if it would be an area that would be dangerous. Thankfully it was
actually a nice place to walk around, just normal people going about their
business. In th
e middle of the shopping district was a car park with what
looked like a flat roof but at ground level, surrounded by fencing. In front of
this was a memorial that resembled the Twin
Towers of the old World Trade Centre
in New York,
tributes already adorning it.
Like with any disaster site, it is always hard to imagine
what it must have been like here to have this all happen in front of you. I
have been to many sites like this and each time I am astounded by how normal
everything is around it, almost like it hadn’t happened. I think over time they
are making the memorial more permanent but as it stood this was just a
temporary monument. With the site visited and photographs taken of the memorial
and site, it was a visit to a nearby supermarket and then catching a bus back
to the city centre.
Now a disaster of this magnitude would not be forgotten, but
it was the Firefighters
Museum that would
remember it more than anyone for they lost three of their guys in the collapse
and had several more injured. This museum was quite a walk away and very cheap
to get in, but it was worth the effort. This has a complete history of Latvian
fire fighting and the Maxima collapse featured heavily in one particular room.
Photos of the rescue adorned the wall, an actual chunk of the concrete on
display, fire helmets and other parts of the story, each one with its own
history. It was good to see that this was documented, but incredible to find
that a disaster like this should never have happened in the first place.
But then again, can’t you say that about all of them?
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