No final report yet

THINKING OF YOU: Tuesday, August 26, marked the one-year anniversary of the fatal cave-in at Arch Cot, Brittons Hill, St. Michael. On August 26 last year, Donavere Codrington and his wife Cassandra and their children Yashiro, Shaquanda and Shaquille all died when the apartment they were living in collapsed. The Codrington family gathered at Coral Ridge with candles to commemorate the anniversary. Here, Donavere's family, led by mother Margaret Codrington (right) and sister Nicole place flowers and candles at the grave of their loved one

Exactly one year after a building at Arch Cot Terrace, Brittons Hill, St Michael, collapsed, killing a family of five, Government has still not received the final report from the engineers.

And as a result, families displaced by the tragedy and living at the Senior Citizens' Village at Vauxhall, Christ Church may have to stay there longer.

Attorney-General and Minister of Home Affairs, Freundel Stuart, told the DAILY NATION on Tuesday, that the Government had taken certain decisions based on the preliminary report, but wanted to see the recommendations contained in the final report before proceeding with other actions.

On August 26, last year, an apartment building at Arch Cot Terrace caved in killing Donavere Codrington, his wife Cassandra, and their children Yashiro, Shaquanda and Shaquille.

The preliminary report pointed to the need to demolish two of the homes for safety reasons and showed there was no danger to the two schools in the area (St Paul's and St Cyprian's), Stuart said.

Those two schools will reopen at the start of the new school term.

Stuart said there was a September 30 deadline set for people displaced by the tragedy to move out of the temporary accommodation at the Vauxhall facility, but said that deadline had been set with the understanding that the final report would have been in Government's hands last month.

About six Arch Cot Terrace families have been living at Vauxhall since the tragedy.

An "exhaustive" May meeting that brought together several agencies had agreed that September 30, was a realistic time-frame within which all the Arch Cot Terrace issues could be re-solved and it was agreed that the Vauxhall facility could be vacated by then, Stuart said.

However, with the final report still due, the deadline would have to be reviewed, he said Tuesday.

Attempts to reach engineers preparing the report were unsuccessful.

Stuart said the Senior Citizens' Village had a long list of elderly people waiting to be admitted and it was important to return the institution as quickly as possible to the work for which it had been established – care of the elderly.

A Human Chain Link memorial ceremony was scheduled to be held at the site on Sunday. About 3,000 were expected to attend the ceremony organised by the St. Michael South District Emergency Organisation (DEO).

Chairman of the organisation, Leonard "Lenno" Headley, said last week the purpose was to unify and bring the community closer together and to help give some closure to the tragedy. (TY)