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Search forThird landslide in a week traps three men in house
Tuesday, August 19, 2008, 16:50
At a town council meeting on Monday night, councillors called for more measures to limit building on steep hillsides after a retaining wall collapsed onto a bungalow on Saturday night, trapping three men.
The incident follows two wall collapses last week on Quay Road which crushed a van.
County councillor Armand Toms said: "The landslides are causing me great concern. I've seen a massive wall sit on top of a building and the rain is having a great impact. We are in a very steep-sided valley.
"Some properties are nearly as big as the plots they are on and it concerns me. We, as a council, need to say to Caradon District Council we wish to look at infill policies so we know it is safe to build.
"The big houses are putting pressure on the landscape and there could be a serious accident. Are we going to sit here and say in 12 months' time 'we should have done something?'"
The council unanimously agreed to write to the district council to express its concerns about the size of properties being built and how large houses are putting pressure on the town's infrastructure.
The decision comes after 18 people were evacuated from their homes in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Just before midnight on Saturday, residents on Barbican Hill, East Looe, were woken by a loud bang as a large drystone retaining wall fell down.
Tons of debris and concrete plunged onto the property below, demolishing the back wall and causing the roof to partly cave in. Three men were trapped inside and one was buried under rubble.
Firefighters from Looe, Liskeard and Bodmin were called to the scene with crash rescue equipment.
The men inside were Polish nationals – two in their 20s and one in his mid 40s – who could not speak much English.
Firefighters arrived at 12.20am and used crash rescue equipment to shore up the area where one man was trapped by roof timbers. They then dug down underneath him to remove him from the damaged building. The third man was freed by 1.25am and was able to walk away from the scene.
A police spokesman said none of the men required hospital treatment.
Dozens of people were evacuated from Fore Street, from the Ship Inn up to the Cancer Research charity shop.
Homes around the collapsed wall were also emptied while a structural engineer assessed the damage. Residents sheltered in the Salutation Inn and were able to return to their properties just after 2am.
The cause of the collapse has yet to be established and the incident has been referred to the Health and Safety Executive, police said.
The wall collapse is the third in Looe in a week. On Monday, August 11, part of a 20ft wall fell, crushing a van below and damaging a bungalow.
Then, at 7am the following day, a second landslip occurred and the path leading to the Harbour Lodge Guest House collapsed.
The area has been cordoned off until a full structural survey is carried out.
A footpath nearby has also been closed.
Glyn Webster, principal building control surveyor for the district council, said the cause of each incident is under investigation: "We are having a spate of them. What's causing it? I can only guess it's something to do with the weather and the mass of rain we've had.
"The unusually heavy rainfall could be having some effect on it. Other than that it would be pure conjecture.
"Some of these walls are very old, and there could be a number of factors contributing to the falls.
"The incidents are being investigated thoroughly by structural engineers."
Mr Webster visited East Looe in the early hours of Sunday to ensure no-one was at further risk.
The drystone wall which collapsed onto a house in Looe on Saturday night.
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