Act of God or Human Error: First Digital TV mast falls into home in Accra

The aftermath of a heavy rainstorm that hit Accra on January 24, 2015 included the collapse of a TV mast that belongs to private television station, First Digital TV from their premises in Abelenkpe onto a neighbouring five-bedroom house.

The house, which has a boys quarters attached to it, was almost entirely damaged including a Daewoo Matiz taxi parked nearby the house which has its windows shattered.

None of the nine residents of the house who were present during the accident at 5:35pm was injured, but the damage to the building will render them homeless for a while.

Construction workers are currently at the scene cutting down the broken mast which was about a 1000 feet above sea-level. By 10am Sunday morning, a crane and some plain-clothed policemen were at the scene to help with the dismantling and to ensure the security of passers-by respectively.

Abraham Ambing, one of the residents who spoke to GhanaWeb said they were saved by God because all of the members of the household were in the house when the incident occurred.

He said: "the mast owners assured us their full support and reimbursement and at the moment our lawyers are putting down agreements on paper to ensure it is judiciously followed".

The owner of the damaged taxi with registration number GS 4345-12, Mr Emmanuel Morrison, was peeved at the situation. He said the residents had complained about the mast when it was erected about a year ago but First Digital TV failed to listen to their call.

As at the time of filing this report, no one had contacted Mr Morrison about the damages caused to his taxi which he vowed to consider a court action against them if the taxi is not repaired as soon as possible to enable him fend for his family.

Owners of the mast, First Digital TV, formerly SKYY Digital TV, were not readily available to comment on the accident but present at the scene is their legal team who are also examining the situation.

Meanwhile, the cost of damages cannot be readily ascertained.

Click Photos to see more photos from the accident scene.