TRAGEDY AT KNUST (1B, APRIL 26, 2010)

Kumasi witnessed two bizarre incidents last Saturday. In the first incident, one of the walkways at the Independence Hall of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) collapsed on two female students, killing one and severely injuring the other.
In the second, two children were burnt to death at Kronom, a Kumasi suburb.
In the incident at the KNUST, the deceased, identified as Eva Lodina, a Level 100 Business student of Queens Hall, was said to have visited a friend at the Independence Hall and she was sitting on a chair under the walkway when it suddenly collapsed and trapped her.
The injured student, who was identified only as Gertrude, is also a Level 100 student offering Pharmacy.
Gertrude is said to be resident at the Africa Hall and, like Eva, she was waiting for a friend under the walkway when it collapsed.
The incident occurred around 2.30 p.m. when many of the students were in their rooms.
The story would have been different if students had converged on the walkway, as they do during early mornings and late in the evenings to discuss personal and academic issues.
It took the students several minutes before they were able to pull both the deceased and Gertrude from under the concrete beam.
Eva was pronounced dead on arrival at the KNUST Hospital where she was rushed to and her body has been deposited at the mortuary for autopsy.
Gertrude is said to have been transferred to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital for urgent medical care.
When the Daily Graphic visited the KNUST campus, the students were still bemoaning the fate that had befallen their fellow students.
The Vice-Chancellor of the KNUST, Professor Kwasi Kwafo Adarkwa, who spoke to the Daily Graphic, confirmed the incident and said the university authorities were investigating the circumstances that led to the sudden collapse of the walkway.
He, however, noted that since the university was established over 50 years ago, there had not been any major maintenance.
In the Kronom, the two children, a 10-year-old boy and his sister, five, were burnt to death when the single-room apartment in which they lived with their mother caught fire.
The deceased, who were identified as Prosper Oduro and Abena Pokuah, were sleeping alone in the room when it caught fire.
Briefing the Daily Graphic, the Ashanti Regional Fire Officer, Mr Philip Aheng Mensah, said the Fire Service had a distress call at its station at Suame Magazine and responded quickly.
He said when firemen reached the place, the room was still engulfed in flames.
He said the firemen succeeded in putting out the fire after some time and when they entered the room, the children had been burnt beyond recognition.
He said initial investigations revealed that the room had no electricity and the children might have used a candle as their source of light.
He said it was also established that even though the children lived with their mother, she was not in the room at the time it caught fire.
Mr Mensah said the deceased’s mother had still not returned from her outing as of the time the firemen managed to put out the fire and retrieved the bodies of the deceased from the blaze.