- 50-year-old led two sons to safety as rubble fell from their £1m townhouse
- Collapse is being blamed on yesterday’s heatwave
- Freak incident has left his family and four others homeless
By
Ian Garland
10:17 EST, 23 May 2012
|
17:35 EST, 23 May 2012
Writer Will Self is lucky to be alive after the roof of his £1 million house collapsed while he was inside with his children.
The Journalist and author led his two sons to safety after the roof came down on his and four of his neighbours’ homes in Stockwell, south London, last night.
The freak incident is being blamed on yesterday’s sudden heatwave, when temperatures leaped almost 10 degrees in less than 24 hours.
Roofless: Will Self stands outside his home in Stockwell south London after yesterday’s roof collapse
Damage: A total of five houses lost their roofs during the freak incident, which took place at 8.45pm on Tuesday
Speaking afterwards shaken Self said: ‘It was like the front of my house fell off. Somebody could have been killed.’
‘I got the children out to the back of the property because it was all about to go,’ he told the Evening Standard. Once things had stopped falling off I got them out through the front door.’
Homeless: The writer and his family are staying with friends until their house is repaired
Self’s wife, journalist Deborah Orr, wrote about the incident on Twitter.
She said: “Our house, and the four neighbouring houses, are OVER.
‘But no one is hurt and we’re staying with @blackdogyellow tonight.”
She later added: “No one knows what caused it yet, but it’s emergency services central. Helicopters, the lot.
‘Shaken. And homeless. With only what we stood up in.’
London Fire Brigade confirmed it sent four engines and a fire rescue unit to the scene just before 9pm, with firefighters helping one elderly woman to safety.
Watch manager Simon Phillips said: ‘Firefighters helped an elderly woman to safety and a further 16 people left properties before we arrived.
‘There was a lot of rubble in the street and we used a thermal imaging camera over the debris to make sure no one was trapped underneath.
‘It’s a busy road and it’s very lucky nobody was walking outside otherwise they could have been seriously injured.’
One of Mr Self’s neighbours, Julia Wiley, 48, was also home when the roof parapet of her three storey Victorian townhouse collapsed.
She described the sound as a ‘whoop, crack and crash’.
Cause: The roof collapses are being blamed on a sudden change in temperature from cold to hot
DIURNAL SHIFT: GOOD FOR WINE, BAD FOR BUILDINGS
Diurnal shift is a meteorological term for the variation in temperature between the highs of the day and the cool of the night.
In the last two days, this swing has been far greater than for most of the year.
The phenomenon is particularly important when growing grapes as it has the effect of increasing their ripening qualities, while the sudden drop in temperature preserves the balance of natural acids.
But in buildings, such changes cause steel, concrete and other materials to expand and contract, which can damage the structure, particularly if it is ageing or defective.
Much of London’s housing stock is more than 100 years old.
The mother of three added: ‘It happened at about 8:45 last night.
‘There was a cracking sound which was the parapet coming away, then a wooshing as the debris fell down and then a crashing and all of the dust.
‘I was sitting watching television at the time. I thought what on earth was that – I didn’t have any idea what happened.
‘We came down the steps, which have been destroyed by a big bit of rubble and a very friendly Rastafarian neighbour helped me climb down the gap. There was dust everywhere.
‘I vomited with the shock of it.’
Mrs Wiley, who is currently staying with friends in Kennington, said a council surveyor told her a phenomenon called ‘diurnal shift’ may have caused the destruction.
She explained: ‘The surveyor has told us that it may have been caused by a strong diurnal shift, which in layman’s terms means really low temperatures followed by really high temperatures, which has caused this to happen.
‘I just thought how am I going to get that fixed.’
Miracle in south London: Mr Self is grateful no one was hurt or killed by all the falling rubble
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The chimney’s look to have stayed in place. At least that’s one builder, if still around, would be hired again.
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With being old house the brickwork at top always get weather and in time will need rebuilding like lots of house of 100 year old, The sand and cement is a lot better for the brickwork these day and the trades mans and the building control.
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some roofer is going to be making a bit of dosh
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Why hasn`t everyone else`s house collaped because of the sudden change in temperature?
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Crumbs!
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Its still a terraced house!
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Looks to me like that was an accident waiting to happen. I recommend that all similar houses of that age are checked before someone is hurt.
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26 degrees celcius is a heatwave???
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Cannot stand the self righteous Wil Self but would not wish this nightmare on anyone.
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Probably weeks of rain has damaged the mortar on the roof and brickwork and with the recent heat the gable end has crumbled and collapsed.
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