George building collapse survivor recalls moment "everything went dark"

Tragedy struck at 14:09 on Monday, 6 May, when a multi-storey construction site at 75 Victoria Street in the city of George collapsed.

Search and rescue efforts were underway immediately following the collapse.

On Wednesday, Breakfast with Martin Bester spoke to Delvin Safers, a survivor of the George building collapse.

Speaking to Martin Bester live from Mosselbay, Safers said he is doing much better since the incident but that he is still in a lot of pain.

The 29-year-old was an electrician on the site, working on the third floor of the building when the tragedy occurred.

"We were coming back from lunch on the third floor, and as we were talking, in less than a second, the building just collapsed," recalls Safers.

He noted that nothing "really" gave an indicated that the building would collapse.

"All I saw was darkness. I was lying there for 15 minutes when I finally reached for my phone, turned on the light and saw all the rubble around me."

This was also the moment that the survivor saw a concrete slab lying on top of him.

He recalled thinking that he wouldn’t be able to get out of the rubble as his arms and legs were stuck under the rubble.

"At first, I thought that only one part of the building collapsed, but I couldn’t hear anyone for the first two hours, which made me think it was the whole building."

One hour after the incident, Safers heard two men screaming from under the rubble, but there was no way to communicate.

Safers also recalled the heart-wrenching moment he saw one of his colleagues who was on the third floor with him lying by his feet.

"I saw the slab on his body and realised he was dead."

Safers was trapped under the rubble for more than a day.

"At first, I was positive when I heard people and ambulances, but as time went on, it got more difficult as the hours moved on.

"For the first 20 hours, my phone was still on, but after it died, I didn’t know how many hours had passed."

The young man recalled that the only thing he could think about at the time was his two-year-old son, his girlfriend, and the rest of his family.

As the only current breadwinner for the entire family, Jacaranda FM gave Delvin R10,000 from the Good Morning Angels fund to assist him and his family during this difficult time.