Four days after the disaster in which two people lost their lives, when bleachers in a hall belonging to the Karlin-Stolin hasidic community collapsed, the investigation into the incident is ongoing.
Interviewed on Channel 13, the structural engineer who authorized the holding of the event – which was the dedication of the building in which it was held – stressed that he had only approved part of the structure of the bleachers, and that following his inspection, hasidim had added more rows to the structure. According to reports, the completed bleachers were 16 rows high.
“Everything was okay on Friday, when I made my inspection,” the engineer said. “I checked the bleachers and although I had one small objection, they were perfectly stable.”
He added that, “For some reason, on Sunday they decided to add several rows above the existing structure, and they did that themselves. It seems like they didn’t have enough materials to do so, and what’s more, no one checked those extra rows that they added. No one authorized them.”
Initial reports following the tragedy made note of the fact that the building in which it occurred is still under construction and has yet to receive the necessary permits for its use. However, the engineer stressed that this fact was unrelated to the disaster.
“The building is still under construction and they still don’t have the permits for holding events in it,” he said. “All the same, they were using the building, and if they would have asked me, I would have said that they could safely use it as a one-off occurrence. As it happens, they did ask me, and I told them they could use it for a single evening, as long as they implemented various safety measures. My expert opinion was that it was safe to use the building for an event such as that which took place.”
Bleachers are used in virtually every hasidic community, and have been used for decades, without incident. All the same, the Gerrer hasidic community in Israel, the largest hasidic group in the country, recently made the decision to cease the use of bleachers.
Of the several hundred injured in this week’s tragedy, the vast majority have already been released from hospital, but several are still in serious condition.