Tragedy Strikes: Autorickshaw Driver Loses Family in House Collapse

TRICHY: In a devastating incident, an autorickshaw driver in Trichy lost his mother, wife, and two children when the ceiling of their house collapsed on them. The tragic incident occurred in the early hours of Monday, leaving the 48-year-old man as the sole survivor as he was away attending his brother-in-law’s funeral.

The autorickshaw driver, C Marimuthu, had no idea that his trip to Chennai on Sunday would be the last time he would see his family. He had recently completed repair work on the back portion of their house, named ‘Lakshmi Illam,’ on Gandhi Street in Keezha Ambikapuram. Unfortunately, fate intervened, and the four of them were sleeping in the living room, which was in urgent need of maintenance when the ceiling gave way.

The four victims of the tragedy have been identified as Marimuthu’s mother, C Shanthi, aged 75, his wife Vijayalakshmi, aged 45, and his daughters Pradeepa, aged 12, and Harini, aged 10.

The collapse went unnoticed by the neighbors initially since the outer walls of the house remained intact. It wasn’t until around 7 am that a neighbor named S Vijayalakshmi discovered the caved-in portion of the terrace and realized that the occupants were not responding to her calls for help.

Fire and rescue services personnel from the Cantonment fire station were immediately alerted and rushed to the scene. However, they could only access the house through the terrace since it was locked from the inside. Upon entering the collapsed portion, they tragically found the four occupants buried under the debris.

An investigation by the fire services personnel revealed that the living room, constructed using the ‘Madras terrace roof’ method, was weak. The roof, made of red bricks and lime mortar mixture, had suffered from water seepage, and several teak rafters were wet. P Sathyavardhanan, the assistant district officer of the fire and rescue services, stated, “The house was not maintained properly. Due to seepage, rainwater was trapped in the roof.”

One of the neighbors, G Sankar, mentioned, “Many of our neighbors were returning from church late at night after attending the New Year prayers. We did not hear any crash or noise from the house.”

The bodies of the victims were transferred to the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Government Hospital (MGMGH) for autopsy. The Ariyamangalam police in Trichy have registered a case and are conducting further investigations into the incident.