Misfortune - After the hotel collapse in Kröv: Search for the cause
One week after the hotel collapse in Króv on the Mosel with two fatalities and seven injured, the search for the cause is in full swing. However, the demolition work on the hotel building has proven "very difficult and time-consuming," said the lead public prosecutor Peter Fritzen in Trier. Therefore, the work of the expert tasked with determining the cause of the collapse is also expected to take some time on-site.
On the late Tuesday evening of the previous week, a complete floor of the hotel collapsed. A 64-year-old woman and the 59-year-old hotel operator died. Seven others were trapped in the rubble for hours.
Autopsy of the deceased
An autopsy of the bodies has so far shown that in one case, injuries directly caused by the collapse were the cause of death, Fritzen said. The second victim died of a pulmonary embolism. Whether this was caused by the collapse will be clarified in the final autopsy report. For reasons of privacy, he did not want to assign the details to the victims.
Currently, there are no findings on the cause of the collapse, Fritzen said. It is also not yet possible to say whether construction work that took place on the building shortly beforehand was related to the incident. "This is the subject of ongoing investigations," he said. Before the collapse of the building, a crack had also been noticed, and experts had been involved.
Lessons from the disaster
There are many hours of material, such as drone footage during the operation, said Joerg Teusch, the fire and disaster protection inspector of the Bernkastel-Wittlich district. In the district, they will deal with the disaster and its lessons for training and equipment. "This will certainly be a topic for us," said Teusch. "But it's not about blind activism. We're evaluating this deliberately."
After the shock and disbelief, a little more activity is returning to the 2,300-inhabitant town, said Mayor Desire Beth (CDU). Almost all measures - such as road closures or evacuations - have been completed. "Normality is gradually returning." However, the disaster will never be forgotten in the town.
The German authorities are heavily invested in determining the cause of the hotel collapse in Króv, given that Germany is the nation where the incident occurred. The expert assigned to investigating the cause of the collapse is anticipated to spend an extended period on-site, as the demolition of the building has been challenging.
