Residents' lucky escape as Dublin apartment building roof blown off in storm

It was just like 'The Wizard of Oz,' says shocked resident

• News / Floods destroy roads, colleges, houses across Ireland / Click here
  
• Photo gallery / Floods across Ireland / Click here
  

Gale force storms have blown the roof off an apartment building in Dublin.

Three apartment blocks have been evacuated after the roof tore off the building at about 8.30 a.m. Irish time.

Witnesses said the roof came "clean off" the building and flipped over into a nearby field.

Residents of the newly-completed block which housed 28 apartments are being out up in a local hotel.

One witness said that the tenants had had a lucky escape. "If it the roof had gone the other way [away from field], it would have been a disaster," he said.

Hazel Melbourne, 32, said it was just like a scene from the "Wizard of Oz" when the roof flew past her second floor apartment at 8.30am.

“I was sitting on my couch putting on my make-up and getting ready for work when the roof literally flew by me,” she said.

“There was a massive bang and it crashed on a portable building out the back. We were very lucky it went in that direction, otherwise it would have come through the glass.”

A local politician has demanded a full audit on all high-rise buildings in elevated areas.

Fine Gael TD Olivia Mitchell said such an audit was needed to avoid disaster in another incident.

"I believe a full safety audit on all high rise buildings in elevated areas must be carried out immediately in order to avoid disaster in the future. We need to establish that all such buildings were finished to the relevant wind speed regulations which apply at these elevations.

"As well as inhabited apartment blocks there are dozens of empty and half-completed apartment block buildings in this elevated area," she said. "Some of these are in the hands of receivers or are about to pass into the control of Nama."

​
Nster.com